Death toll from India’s monsoon floods rises to 76
India has reported rising casualties from monsoon floods that have gripped the states to the northeast, west and east of the country.
Officials said Monday that the death toll from floods in various states had climbed to at least 76, with eight people killed in the past day.
Pankaj Kumar, an official from the regional government in the western state of Gujarat, said 11 people had died since Saturday as the monsoon intensified across the state.
“Seven of these died in the last 24 hours and at least four others are still missing,” Kumar said.
Authorities in the northeastern state of Assam, one of the worst-hit, reported one more death in the last 24 hours. Rajib Prakash Barua, a senior official with Assam's Disaster Management Authority, said five major rivers were still at danger levels although rains had eased in some parts of the state.
“Thousands have been rescued and are now in 118 relief camps set up by the government across 21 affected districts," he said of a state-wide emergency relief operation that has been underway since the wet season arrived in April.
A total of 60 people have been killed in Assam in the recent flash floods. Rescue teams have also rushed to save endangered species in Assam's Kaziranga National Park, home to India's famed one-horned rhinos. Authorities said grass and other feed were delivered to animals stranded in flooded sections of the park.
Rains and floods have inflicted extensive losses on Arunachal Pradesh in northeast and pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar. Rail and road services as well as power supply have been disrupted in the affected states while thousands remain stranded without basic essentials.
Odisha’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said air sorties had been made in full swing to reach the affected with food, medicine and supplies. Reports said at least 300 people, including 16 pregnant women, had been rescued by emergency response teams in the worst-hit regions of the state since Saturday.
The situation in Arunachal Pradesh, again in northeast, has been quite the same. A landslide last week in a remote village along the border with China killed five people there.
The Indian army has been called to help with relief and rescue operations in some parts of the five worst-hit states.
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