Guwahati, June 16 (IANS) The Assam government Friday sounded an alert as flash floods displaced thousands of people overnight with the death toll mounting to 16 and nearly 500,000 displaced in the northeastern region, officials said.
"We have alerted the army, paramilitary, police and civil officials, including healthcare workers, to move to flood hit areas in the shortest possible time when summoned," Bhumidhar Barman, Assam revenue, relief and rehabilitation minister, told IANS.
Three people were killed overnight in separate incidents, taking the total number of people dead in floods in Assam to 11, an Assam flood control department official said.
Five were killed in the neighbouring Tripura state earlier in the week. At least 10,000 people have been displaced by floods in the state. Officials said heavy mudslides have blocked the lone highway linking the landlocked Tripura to the rest of India.
An Assam government statement said more than 200,000 people were marooned Thursday as rising floodwaters of the main Brahmaputra river cut a swathe across the state. The floods in Assam started May 31.
"Thirteen of the 27 districts in Assam are hit by floods with an estimated 485,000 people displaced so far. A total land area of about 55,000 hectares has been submerged," the statement said.
Police and rescue workers with rubber boats were deployed in the worst-hit Cachar and Karimganj districts in southern Assam to evacuate trapped villagers.
"The situation is critical and with road links snapped we may have to requisition helicopters to drop essentials to people staying in makeshift camps located in inaccessible areas," Cachar district magistrate Gautam Ganguly said over the phone.
Road and rail communications have been hit in many parts of Assam with floodwaters overtopping highways and breaching rail tracks.
Indian Army soldiers Thursday rescued scores of passengers from southern Assam after the train in which they were travelling got stranded due to a rail track breach.
According to a Central Water Commission bulletin, the main Brahmaputra river was flowing above the danger level in at least seven places in Assam. "Displaced people who have fled their homes due to the floods are now taking shelter in raised platforms or in government buildings and schools," the minister said.
Floodwaters of the Brahmaputra entered the famed Kaziranga National Park in eastern Assam, home to the endangered one-horned rhinoceros. "Some areas of the park are now under water forcing migration of animals to higher reaches," a park ranger said.
The 2,906 km Brahmaputra is one of Asia's largest rivers that traverses its first stretch of 1,625 km in China's Tibet region, the next 918 km in India and the remaining 363 km through neighbouring Bangladesh before converging into the Bay of Bengal.
Every year, the floods leave a trail of destruction, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields, drowning livestock, besides causing loss of human life and property, in the remote state of 26 million.
In 2004, at least 200 people have died and more than 12 million displaced in the floods.