Bihar floods cost 39 more lives, UP staggers

Bihar’s flood woes continued with 39 more deaths reported today even as authorities in deluge-ravaged Uttar Pradesh grappled to bring the situation under control.

However, the condition in Assam and West Bengal improved, with water receding from most of the affected areas.

The devastating floods that have swept across large swathes of human habitation have claimed 90 lives in West Bengal, 156 in Assam and 72 in Uttar Pradesh so far.

The toll mounted to 418 Bihar. A staggering 1.67 crore people in 19 districts in the state are bearing the brunt of the flooding.

However, the flood waters have receded at some places, prompting people to return home. The number of relief camps dropped to 368 from 624.

The situation in Uttar Pradesh remained grim. More than 24 lakhs people in over 3,000 villages are affected in 25 districts. More than 57,000 have taken shelter in relief camps.

Several rivers are flowing at the danger mark in the eastern and Tarai regions.

In north Bengal, the situation in the affected districts — Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda — inched closer to normal.

“The situation is getting better each day. There has been no major rain,” a senior officer of the state disaster management department said.

He, however, said Malda district was finding it hard to get rid of stagnant floodwater.

The deluge affected nearly 59 lakh people in the six districts and over six lakh hectares of cropped land was damaged.

The condition in Assam improved considerably with waters of the Brahmaputra river and many of its tributaries flowing below the red mark. However, seven districts in the state are still inundated.

Around 2.67 lakh people in 472 villages of the state are battling the deluge. Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Barpeta, Chirang, Morigaon, Nagaon and Golaghat districts are flood—hit, an Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) report said.

Nearly 36,000 hectares of farmland is under water. Only the Dhansiri river at Numaligarh in Golaghat is flowing above the danger level.

People have started returning home though 25,253 were still putting up in 62 relief camps in Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Chirang and Nagaon districts.

There were reports that roads in Jorhat district, a bridge in Morigaon and a school in Dibrugarh district have been damaged.

The third wave of the devastating flood has so far claimed 72 lives in Assam. In total, 156 people have died in this year’s flood-related incidents in the state.

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