Floods spread to new areas in Assam, affect over 4 lakh citizens

Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam worsened dramatically further on Thursday with the number of people affected rising to over 4 lakh from 2 lakh since Wednesday.

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According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), the number of affected districts has increased from 11 to 17 on Thursday as fresh areas were inundated overnight. Though no casualty was reported on Thursday, the total number of affected people stands at 4,23,386.

(Photo: ANI)

The 17 affected districts are Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Barpeta, Nalbari, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Nlorigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Majuli, Jorhat and Dibrugarh.

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Dhemaji remained by far the worst-hit district in the state with more than 80,000 people affected. In Lakhimpur and Bongaigaon districts, an upwards of 72,000 people have been directly affected in the floods.

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According to data provided by the Central Water Commission, several rivers are flowing above the danger mark. These are the Brahmaputra at Nematighat (Jorhat) and Tezpur (Sonitpur), Dikhow at Sivasagar, Dhansiri (S) at Numaligarh (Golaghat), Jia Bhoroli at NT Rd Crossing (Sonitpur), Puthimari at NH Rd Crossing (Kamrup) and Beki at Barpeta.

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Floodwaters have also entered the Kaziranga National Park and nearly 40pc of the park's area is under water. Animals are taking shelter on highlands in the park. Authorities have imposed speed restrictions for vehicles moving on NH-37 that skirts the park's southern boundary to prevent animals from being hit while crossing the highway in search of higher grounds and food.

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