Floods killed 97 people in India

Thousands of people had to evacuate to temporary shelters when rising river water flooded people’s homes and submerged many areas of agricultural land. The flood has inundated more than 14,000 hectares of crops.

Many villages in the state of Assam are buried in mud. According to data released today, at least 97 people have died and about 170,000 people are affected.

In Sivasagar, the district that suffered the most damage, an AFP reporter said many houses were half flooded, trees were uprooted and vehicles were buried under a thick layer of mud.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today posted a video on social media, sending his condolences to the family of a 13-year-old boy who died while trying to save a small dog in floodwaters. “No parent wants to have to say goodbye to their child like that,” he wrote.

Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who visited the heavily affected area on August 6, said it will take a long time for life to return to normal.

“Village after village has been submerged by floodwaters,” he said.

Similar to many other areas in India, the state of Assam often suffers from floods during the June-September rainy season, when the country’s largest river, the Brahmaputra, and many tributaries rise and overflow their banks.

However, experts assess that climate change, along with unplanned development, is causing floods to occur more frequently, more intensely and cause more serious damage.

Residents and local officials say illegal coal mining activities in neighboring Nagaland state have made the flooding situation more serious, when many areas that are rarely flooded are now under water. Chief Minister Sarma said he would take up the issue with the federal government.

According to the environmental advocacy organization Climate Trends, floods in Assam state are increasingly serious due to the combined effects of climate change, changes in river flows and an increase in human activities and development in vulnerable areas. This causes floods to occur more frequently, become more complicated and cause greater damage.