INDIA: Monsoon rains have triggered flash floods in India's north-eastern Assam state, submerging around 30 villages and leaving over 20,000 people homeless.
Assam's flood control minister, Mr Bharat Narah, yesterday said incessant rain over the last few days had dangerously raised the level of the Brahmaputra River and its many tributaries, forcing over 20,000 people in Dhemaji district, 288 miles from the state capital, Guwahati, to flee their homes.
The state health minister, Mr Bhumidar Barman, said local administrations had begun relief and rescue work by helping marooned villagers get to makeshift clinics and camps on high ground. Teams of paramedics and doctors have also been deployed to prevent the outbreak of waterborne diseases, he added.
State police, paramilitary and disaster management squads are also on standby to help rescue operations and prepare for more torrential rain over the next 72 hours.
Officials yesterday warned that flood waters also threatened to submerge Assam's Kaziranga National Park, home to the nearly extinct one-horned rhinoceros.
Kaziranga's forest rangers have been placed on "maximum alert" amid fears that flood waters might submerge the rhino sanctuary, as the entire region braced itself for heavy downpours over the next few weeks.
"Over 600 endangered animals, including rhinos, drowned in floods two years ago," park warden Mr N.K. Vasusaid said. "We are worried," he declared, but added that for the moment the park was safe and preventive action was being taken to protect the animals and if necessary move them to safer places. Majuli, the world's largest river island in eastern Assam is also in danger of being submerged by the fierce downpour.
Meanwhile, four people died on Sunday after being swept away by a flood that followed a severe storm in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, officials said.
Two women and two children died in the flooding, which also destroyed 24 homes in the former Soviet republic.
The Tajik emergencies ministry has issued an appeal to international donor organisations to assist families in the impoverished nation to help recover from the flood's impact.
China, already reeling from some of its worst floods in years that have killed more than 200 people, is likely to suffer more deluges this week, state media said yesterday. The official death toll from floods in several provinces earlier this month was 205, but torrential rain over the weekend caused several more deaths in the southern province of Fujian, the official China Daily reported.
