The flood situation in Assam has turned from bad to worse with the lone National Highway linking the Northeast to the rest of the country being cut off at two places, while the Army was deployed in Kamrup and Nalbari district on Sunday to rescue the marooned people. Army helicopters were also pressed into service to rescue people and drop food packets.

While the National Highway 31 was already cut off near Srirampur on the Assam-West Bengal on Friday night, the same highway was also overtopped by flood waters from the Puthimari between Rangiya and Kamalpur in Kamrup district on Sunday morning, cutting off road link between Guwahati and Lower Assam.

Army columns from the 21 Red Horns Division at Rangiya were sent out early on Sunday after the Puthimari breached its embankments at three places north of the highway and submerged at least 40 villages in the vicinity, Army PRO Col Rajesh Kalia said.

Incessant rains in Bhutan have caused every river coming down to Assam to swell with the Saralbhanga and Sonkosh affecting over 10,000 people in Kokrajhar. The Pagladiya and Mora-Pagladiya on the other hand have inundated at least 50 villages in Baska and Nalbari district. In Darrang district, the Nonoi river breached embankments at six spots and has affected over 25 villages, while the Beki and Manas have rendered homeless at least 5000 people in Barpeta district.

But the worst has been in Majuli, the world’s largest inhabited river island in Upper Assam, where 1.40 lakh out of its total population of 1.65 lakh have been seriously affected. “As many as 140 of the island’s 160 villages are under water, and at least 74 families have lost their homestead as the Brahmaputra has caused severe erosion in addition to inundation,” Arindam Barua, extra assistant commissioner, Majuli, told The Indian Express over the phone.

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