Flood situation worsens in Bihar, improves slightly in Assam; IMD predicts more rain

New Delhi: The flood situation worsened in Bihar on Monday as waters entered new areas of the 11 affected districts, cumulatively impacting nearly 24.5 lakh people, but there was a slight improvement in Assam though it reported one fresh casualty, even as six deaths were recorded in rain-related incidents elsewhere.

The national capital, meanwhile, witnessed sultry weather with no rain and humidity reaching up to 94 per cent.

A Bihar government bulletin said the floodwaters spread to new areas in the 11 affected districts, hitting one million more population, even though no fresh death was reported and the toll remained at 10.

The latest bulletin said a total of 24.42 lakh people have been hit by floods in 765 panchayats of 93 blocks of 11 districts with Darbhanga being the worst-hit, where 8.87 lakh people have been displaced in its 14 blocks.

The Sunday bulletin had said the number of flood-hit population in Bihar was nearly 15 lakh in 11 districts.

The flood-affected districts are Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Supaul, Kishanganj, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, West Champaran, East Champaran, Khagaria and Saran.

Seventeen teams of the NDRF and eight of the SDRF are involved in the rescue operations as part of which 1.67 people have been evacuated from the affected areas so far, the bulletin said.

A family in Kaharpur village of Naugachhia sub-division of Bhagalpur district was seen demolishing their home as Kosi river was about to take it in its stride.

Asked the reason for doing so, they said that several houses have been washed away in the Kosi water and his house will also be taken away in a few hours so he is removing bricks to use them for another house once the situation improves.

In Assam, the flood situation has improved slightly though one more person died and 22.34 lakh people in 22 of the states 33 districts are affected, an official report said on Monday.

With the death of one person at Bokakhat in Golaghat district, the toll in this year's flood and landslides has risen to 129.

While 103 people died in flood-related incidents, 26 were killed in landslides, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said in its bulletin.

The ASDMA said the number of people affected by the deluge has decreased by over 2.42 lakh since Sunday, while that of the districts was down by one.

Goalpara district remains the worst-hit with over 4.62 lakh people affected, while 3.81 lakh and 3 lakh people are hit in Barpeta and Morigaon districts, respectively.

Personnel of the State Disaster Response Force and district administrations besides local people have rescued 97 marooned people during the last 24 hours.

In the hill state of Uttarakhand, three persons got buried alive early on Monday when torrential rains reduced their houses into a heap of rubble in two separate incidents in Pithoragarh district, officials said.

District Magistrate VK Jogdande said Jawahar Singh (30) and his mother, 55-year-old Vishna Devi, died after their houses at Dhamigaon village in Bangapani sub-division collapsed.

He said 37-year-old Jayanti Devi died at Gunthi village in the neighbouring Tejam sub-division.

In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh, three boys drowned while bathing in a pond in Hariharpur village under Kandhrapur police station area. 

Some locals brought the boys out of the pond and rushed them to the district hospital where the doctors declared them dead, police said.

Also in Uttar Pradesh, which overall received moderate rains and thundershowers at isolated places, the body of a 14-year-old boy was fished out from the Hindon river in Noida on Monday, a day after he drowned while swimming there.

The boy along with his friends from Haibatpur village had gone to the river for a swim on Sunday and drowned around 3 pm after which the police were alerted.

A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had also joined the search, according to officials.

While in Greater Noida, a 35-year-old man had a close shave on Monday after his speeding car veered off the road and plunged into a water-filled pit. The car got completely submerged in the water, while the man was saved by alert locals and police officials, they said.

Hot and humid weather conditions prevailed in Haryana and Punjab, including Chandigarh, with maximum temperatures hovering above normal limits, the meteorological department said here.

Dry weather has mainly prevailed in the region as the monsoon has remained subdued during the past four days.

Meanwhile, the IMD said fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls are very likely over Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim and northeastern states (mainly over Arunachal Pradesh and Assam & Meghalaya) during 28th to 30th July.

It has forecast similar weather activities over Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh from 29th to 31st July.