More deaths in flood-hit Assam, Bihar, Bengal

Floods claimed more lives in Assam, Bihar and West Bengal, where over a crore people are still affected and train services are yet to be completely restored. In Uttarakhand, two more bodies were recovered from Dharchula area of Pithoragarh district, taking the death toll in the recent cloudbursts to eight as relief and rescue operations continued in search of the missing, DGP Anil Raturi said.

It was a sunny day in the national capital with the maximum temperature settling at 36.4 degrees Celsius. The humidity level oscillated between 78 and 44 per cent. The flood situation in Assam continued to deteriorate with 11 more people losing their lives and 33.45 lakh people were affected across 24 districts in the state. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal left for Delhi during the day to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him of preliminary damage of the third wave of flood. Currently, 2,970 villages were under water and 1.43lakh hectares of the crop were damaged, the report said.

ASDMA said the authorities are running 304 relief camps and distribution centers in 21 districts, where 1,38,648people have taken shelter. Over 4,600 persons have been evacuated to safer places by the SDRF and NDRF personnel in many districts. The flood has damaged embankments, roads, bridges and other infrastructures in several districts.

Brahmaputra river is now flowing above the danger mark at Guwahati, Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, Goalpara and Dhubri towns. The toll in the flood rose to 72 in Bihar, where 73.44 lakh people have been hit by inundation in 14 districts triggered by incecretary in the state disaster management department, Anirudh Kumar said 73.44 lakh people are in the grip of flood which has engulfed 110 blocks and 1,151 panchayats in 14 districts of the state, the latest being Gopalganj, which was submerged today.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was scheduled to conduct an aerial survey of Bettiah, Valmikinagar areas with DeputyChief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi during the day could not do so due to bad weather. He, however, monitored the flood situation from Patna through interactions with senior officials.

Train services continued to be affected due to the calamity and rail movement is completely disrupted in many sections, a statement from East Central Railways chief public relations officer Rajesh Kumar said. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel helped a pregnant lady deliver her baby on its rescue boat in the state's flood-ravaged Madhubani district.

In West Bengal, at least 32 people have died and over 14 lakh people affected so far due to floods in the six districts caused partly due to overflowing rivers of Bhutan, Bihar, and Jharkhand. "While 30 persons drowned, two died due to snake bites.Besides 104 domestic animals have died so far in the flood," an officer senior official in West Bengal's disaster management department said. Jalpaiguri received 30 mm rainfall in 24 hours till this morning, the highest recorded during the period in the region, the MeT department said. The IMD issued thunderstorm and lightning warning in 18 districts of Odisha.

Meanwhile, Meteorological Centre here said, rainfalloccurred at a few places in Odisha with heavy rainfall at oneor two places in north coastal Odisha. In Uttarakhand, two more bodies were recovered fromDharchula area of Pithoragarh district, taking the death tollin the recent cloudbursts there to eight while relief andrescue operations continued in search of the missing, DGP AnilRaturi said. Damaged Trek route between Mangti and Malpa which were hit by cloudbursts has resulted in temporary suspension Kailas Mansarovar Yatra with 47 pilgrims of the 16th batch airlifted to Dharchula by helicopters and 23 members of the 13th returning batch airlifted to Pithoragarh from Gunji.

In Himachal Pradesh, rescue operations by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), state police, home guards and other agencies to dig out bodies from the buses buried under debris following a massive landslide at Kotrupi in Mandi district continued for the fifth day but there was no success and the death toll remained at 46. 45 bodies have been identified so far with the help of forensic experts. Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kadam said there was no major threat of landslides and the people in four adjoining villages have been asked to move to safer places. Special Secretary and Director Management D D Sharma said that Rs 50 crore has been released to all deputy commissioners to pay relief and compensation to all the people affected by natural calamities.

Hot and humid weather conditions prevailed in Punjab and Haryana. Union Territory Chandigarh recorded a maximum temperatureof 34.4 degrees Celsius. In Haryana, Ambala recorded a maximum of 35.1 degrees Celsius, the MeT department said. Parts of Bengaluru, which experienced heavy downpour overthe last two days, are slowly limping back to normalcy with aletup in the rains till evening.essant rains in Nepal and some districts inthe northern part of the state.