Heavy rains cause flooding in Assam, Gujarat

The flood condition in Assam continued to remain bleak on Monday after overnight heavy rainfall across several parts of the state inundated villages, towns and farmlands. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a “Red Alert” and predicted “very heavy” to “extremely heavy” rainfall across several districts of Assam till 22 June. The IMD‘s Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Guwahati has issued a “Red Alert” with a prediction of “Heavy (7-11 cm in 24 hours) to Very Heavy (11-20 cm in 24 hours) with extremely heavy rainfall (over 20 cm in 24 hours)” over Lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, Barpeta and Bongaigaon. During the same period, “heavy to very heavy” rainfall is very likely over eight districts. The RMC has issued an “Orange Alert” for 20 June, followed by a “Yellow Alert” for the subsequent two days. “Red Alert” warrants immediate action, while “Orange Alert” implies the need to be prepared for action and “Yellow Alert” stands for “watch and be updated”. According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 33,400 people are affected by floods in Cachar, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Hojai, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, Tinsukia and Udalguri districts. Lakhimpur was the worst hit, with over 25,200 people affected, followed by Dibrugarh (more than 3,800 people affected) and Tinsukia (almost 2,700 persons affected), it added.
The administration has been operating one relief camp, which is currently sheltering nine people, besides running 16 relief distribution centres in three districts. At present, 142 villages are underwater and 1,510.98 hectares of crop areas have been damaged across Assam.
Meanwhile, northern Gujarat was lashed with heavy rains due to a depression, which is a remnant of the cyclonic storm Biparjoy. The downpour has caused a flood-like situation in many villages of Banaskantha district, officials said on Monday. Various parts of Gujarat, including the Saurashtra region, are likely to receive light to moderate rainfall in the next two days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a release. Several villages in the Dhanera taluka of Banaskantha were affected due to a flood-like situation there, a district official said.
Twenty cows were killed after getting swept away in the torrent at Jadia village, the official said. Senior officials also reached Dhanera to help local authorities in relief work. Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall near Jakhau on Kutch coast in Gujarat on Thursday evening, felling several trees, electric poles and damaging houses.
As per the IMD, the heavy rains caused by the Biparjoy depression affected central parts of south Rajasthan and the neighbouring regions. Banaskantha and Sabarkantha districts in north Gujarat received heavy to very heavy rainfall, ending at 6 am on Monday. Danta taluka of Banaskantha received 126 mm rain, followed by 86 mm in Amirgadh (Banaskantha), 82 mm in Khedbrahma (Sabarkantha), 74 mm in Vijaynagar (Sabarkantha), 69 mm in Poshina (Sabarkantha) and 37 mm in Vadali taluka of Sabarkantha, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.