32 dead as floods, landslides devastate northeast in early monsoon season (Picture credit: AP)
GUWAHATI/IMPHAL/SHILLONG/ITANAGAR/AIZAWL: At least 32 people died in landslides and floods in the last 24 hours as heavy rains, triggered by a depression over north Bangladesh and adjoining Meghalaya battered five northeastern states, bringing down houses, flooding large swathes and causing rockfalls and mudslides. Authorities said Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh received the brunt of the early monsoon onset with devastating consequences.
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In Assam, altogether 9 people lost their lives. While two persons died in upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district after excessive water released from Ranganadi dam inundated several villages bordering Arunachal Pradesh, in Guwahati, five people, including three children, died after a landslide in the Bonda area hit them. In Golaghat Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) confirmed two more deaths, including that of a child, before adding that 12 districts of the state were affected by flood.
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The landslide victims in Guwahati have been identified as Poonam Goswami, her minor daughter, and a neighbouring minor girl. All of them perished when their house were buried in a mudslide on Friday evening. At Datalpara, a minor boy, and in Maligaon, another man died when landslides swept away their homes.
“Water started surging and entered our rooms at around 8 pm and we packed luggage and put it above the almirah. There was no provision to cook food either as the kitchen was also inundated,” said Hemanta Kalita, a resident of Bonda in Guwahati.
“366 hilly locations are landslide prone in Guwahati but most of these people continue to reside risking their lives,” a senior district administration official said. Guwahati and Tezpur saw their highest-ever rainfall in recorded IMD history for the month of May, with Guwahati receiving 111 mm and Tezpur 174 mm in the past 24 hours, officials confirmed on Saturday. Basanti Rai, a housewife of Rukminigaon said neither was there any effort to flush out flood water, not
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