Floods in India’s Assam inflict devastation

• At least 127 people have died in India’s northeastern state of Assam.
• More than 200,000 displaced people are taking refuge in relief camps across the state.
• Residents dread rising water levels and wandering tuskers.

Sakina Khatoon is one of 300 people stranded in a reserve forest in India’s northeastern state of Assam for more than a week after devastating floods devastated at least 12 villages in Nellie.

The residents of Dahuti Habi hamlet, 70 km (43 miles) from Guwahati, the capital of Assam, have no choice but to unintentionally risk wildlife conflict in an elephant corridor in Nellie’s Khulahat Forest since their homes and crops are submerged.

Three of them came really close to the camp yesterday, Khatoon said Al Jazeera. “Everyone began yelling, which chased them away. But yesterday night, we didn’t sleep.

According to Khatoon, residents always live in fear of the rising water level and the tuskers that wander into the forest and approach people.

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Since the region’s first round of strong pre-monsoon rains, which submerged much of the valley last month, millions of people in Assam have been impacted by the flooding. Nobody anticipated the floods after the initial downpour in May to get worse with the arrival of monsoon storms, causing 297 embankments to breach in 20 districts by June 19.

In 2004 and 2007, displaced villagers remembered witnessing the savagery of the Kopili River, a tributary of the powerful Brahmaputra. Everyone concurred that this year is the worst.

According to Assam’s Disaster Management Authority, 2,524 villages in 27 districts were affected as of Sunday, and more than 200,000 displaced people were finding refuge in 564 relief camps spread out across the state. The death toll was at 127 as of the most recent tally.

Despite the heavy rains, the Kopili River hydroelectric dams in Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong released so much water that it overflowed the embankments in surrounding districts like Morigaon and Nagaon.

S. Brahma, a circle official in the little Nagaon town of Raha, saidthat they had received warnings before the four sluice gates in Dima Hasao opened.

But these days, she continued, even the weather forecast is unpredictable. This time around, the weather has been pretty erratic.

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