Half a Million Flee Floods in Northeast India

Assam has suffered more than half the country’s excess rainfall in the last two months, while the northeastern state of Meghalaya has seen more than 120% of the country’s total rainfall in the same period. In Dima Hasao, a tribal district and the state’s only hill station, houses have collapsed as a result of the floods. Nearly half a million people have fled their homes, while the state’s government is working on restoring transportation and connectivity.

The heavy rains have caused widespread flooding in northeastern India, and at least eight people have died. Floods in the region have caused landslides and other natural disasters, displacing more than half a million people. In Assam alone, the Brahmaputra River, which flows into India from Tibet, burst its banks, inundating more than 1,500 villages. The torrential rains continued into Wednesday.

The flooding has affected 33 districts in Assam, with over one million people now in relief camps. Relief efforts are ongoing in Hojai, and officials are overseeing the Dima Hasao district. The Indian army is in the area, and a local revenue minister is in charge of overseeing relief operations there. The locals are still in shock and are waiting to start rebuilding their lives.

One reason for the calamitous flooding in the northeast is excessive rainfall. Some areas have experienced more than 50 percent of the state’s total rainfall this year. However, experts say that it is futile to blame climate change alone for the current flood situation. Other, non-climatic factors are to blame for the situation. For instance, authorities neglected ecological concerns during the construction of infrastructure and did not consider the floods when they built it.

Floods in Assam have forced about half a million people to seek shelter in relief camps. The Brahmaputra River, which flows from Tibet into India, has reached its highest flood levels this month and inundated large areas of the state. Over the last three days, the Brahmaputra River in Assam burst its banks and inundated more than 1,500 villages. Heavy rains continued on Wednesday.