Guwahati, India, Aug 7 (V7N) - Floods in India's northeast have killed nearly 100 people, according to an official toll update on Friday, with villages buried in mud after one of Assam state's worst deluges in years.
At least 97 people have died, affecting nearly 170,000 residents, including thousands forced into temporary shelters as swollen rivers inundate homes and farmland. Floodwaters have submerged more than 14,000 hectares of cropland—an area almost one-and-a-half times the size of Paris.
In the worst-hit Sivasagar district, an AFP journalist saw half-submerged houses, uprooted trees, and vehicles buried under mud. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma shared a video on Friday consoling the parents of a 13-year-old boy who died trying to rescue his pet dog from floodwaters. "No parent should ever have to bid farewell to their child," he wrote.
India's Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who visited the flood-hit region on Thursday, said the scale of devastation was "so huge that it will take time" for normality to be restored. "Village after village has been submerged," he told reporters.
Flooding is common in Assam during the June-September monsoon as the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries overflow. However, experts say climate change, combined with poorly planned development, is increasing the frequency, severity, and impact of the disasters.
Residents and officials have also blamed illegal coal mining in neighboring Nagaland for worsening the flooding, affecting areas not historically prone to inundation. Chief Minister Sarma said he would raise the issue with the national government.
Advocacy group Climate Trends said the increasing severity of floods in Assam was "driven by the interaction of global warming, changing river dynamics and growing human exposure, making them more frequent, more complex and more costly."
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