July 10: A couple died in a landslide at Pathali Pahar Adarsha village under Banderdewa police station, bordering Arunachal Pradesh, in Lakhimpur district of Upper Assam early this morning.
A portion of National Highway 15 was washed away by floodwaters at Pahumara in the same district with the flood situation worsening in Assam.
With the deaths of Krishna Bahadur Dorjee, 56, and his wife Chalimai, 42, the toll in floods and landslides in Assam in the past month has touched 37.
The couple were asleep in their thatched house at Banderdewa, a tri-junction between Itanagar, Lakhimpur and Sonitpur districts of Assam, when a portion of a hill eroded following heavy rain at adjoining Pathali Pahar hill and buried their house.
Banderdewa is about 177km from Tezpur and 34km from North Lakhimpur town, headquarters of Lakhimpur district.
The superintendent of police, Lakhimpur, Sudhakar Singh, said there is no further threat to the area.
The landslide has snapped road connectivity to Nowboicha in Lakhimpur district. The road is being repaired.
A breach along a road leading to Kimin in Arunachal Pradesh from Lakhimpur at Pahumara in Lakhimpur district by water released from the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation's (Neepco) Ranganadi dam also snapped road connectivity to Dhemaji from the rest of the country since early this morning.
Water released from the dam washed away a portion of NH-15, that runs from Baihata in Karum district of lower Assam and Wakro in Arunachal Pradesh, cutting off Dhemaji and eastern districts of Arunachal Pradesh from Lakhimpur.
Continuous rise in water level of the Brahmaputra is posing a major threat to the island district of Majuli in Upper Assam which has been facing massive erosion at various places. However, the district administration is keeping a vigil to meet any situation.
Ferry services along the Brahmaputra in Dibrugarh, Dhemaji, Majuli and Jorhat districts have been suspended indefinitely since yesterday.
State irrigation and sericulture minister Ranjit Dutta today took stock of the situation in Sonitpur district in central Assam.
He met the Sonitpur deputy commissioner, MLAs and other officials of the district at the DC's conference hall in Tezpur to review the flood situation.
Incessant rain has submerged parts of Jorhat town in Upper Assam. Deputy commissioner of Jorhat, Virendra Mittal, said: "We have instructed the officers concerned to identify encroachments which are obstructing flow of water. The encroachments will be cleared soon. The waterlogging of the Gohain-Tekela area is alarming and the administration is trying to solve the problem. We also visited affected areas along with Assembly Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami today."
Jorhat MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa also visited the waterlogged areas this morning. Two landslides caused by incessant rain were also reported in Guwahati today.
According to the District Disaster Management Authority of Kamrup (metro), landslides occurred at Krishnanagar in the Chandmari area of central Guwahati and at Sarumotoria in the Dispur area of eastern part of Guwahati.
In Krishnanagar landslide occurred around 6am, but no damage was reported. In Sarumotoria, the landslide happened around 8am which damaged a hut.
In south Assam's Barak Valley, the flood situation has substantially improved with almost all the rivers in the three districts receding.
The All Assam Students' Union today reiterated its demand to declare flood and erosion problems of the state a national problem and urged the government to protect Majuli.
All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should visit Assam to review the flood situation in the state.
In Jorhat, Kalpana Das, 22, drowned in a waterlogged portion of her residential compound at Suwani Gaon around 7 this evening.
According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, five other deaths in floods were reported today from across the state.
With the deaths reported today, the toll of flood and landslide-related incidents reached 37.
According to the Central Water Commission, over 12.5 lakh people in 2,053 villages in 67 circles of 20 districts are affected by floods in Assam.
About 18,000 people are taking shelter in 71 relief camps across the state.
Crop in 1.05 lakh hectares of land are damaged and nearly 4.5 lakh domestic animals, including over 1.8 lakh head of cattle, were affected.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY
MANASH PRATIM DUTTA IN GUWAHATI,
PRANAB KR DAS IN TEZPUR,
VINOD KR SINGH IN DHEMAJI AND
SWAPNANEEL BHATTACHARJEE IN SILCHAR
