GUWAHATI, India— Flood waters rose Monday across
northeastern India, where hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on the
roofs of their homes or have fled to higher ground as more torrential rain
fell.
اضافة اعلان
Incessant downpours for more than a week forced the
Brahmaputra and other major rivers to burst their banks across Assam and Bihar
states.
Up to two meters of water has submerged many villages.
Experts say annual
floods which hit the region are getting worse because of
climate change.
At one dam, authorities released water fearing the walls
would collapse.
The floods have also threatened a UNESCO World
Heritage-listed reserve that is home to the largest concentration of one-horned
rhinos.
Tens of thousands of people are stuck in villages cut off by
the
floods and the state governments said more than 400,000 had been moved to
higher ground.
Sixteen-year-old Anuwara Khatun said she and her family have
spent nearly a week on the roof of their home at Ghasbari in Assam's Morigaon
district.
"The water level has been rising for five days
now," she told AFP by telephone from her stricken village on the banks of
the Brahmaputra.
"A lot of families are stuck on their roofs. There is a
shortage of essential supplies so we only eat once a day. There is no hygiene
here."
Santosh Mandal moved his family to a sandbank in Bihar's
Supaul district after his village was flooded.
"There is no clean water to drink, food to eat, and the
children are crying for milk. We are praying for help because the government
has yet to send relief," Mandal said.
The Bihar government has sent rescue boats to get people to
safety but these are concentrated in the worst-hit districts.
The Bihar and Assam governments said more than 12,000 people
were in relief camps.
The Bihar government opened up the Valmiki Gandak dam,
warning people in nearby villages to move away, after 16cm of rain fell in 24
hours.
About 70 percent of the 430-square-kilometer Kaziranga
National Park in Assam is underwater, threatening its rare one-horned
rhinoceroses as well as elephants and wild boar.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam's chief minister, on Monday made
an "urgent appeal" for traffic to avoid a key highway through the
reserve.
He said animals that seek shelter on the highway were now at
risk.
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