New Delhi: The death toll from Assam’s monsoon floods has risen to 66 after four more people died in the past 24 hours, even as officials reported the first signs of the waters beginning to recede in some districts.Three of the fresh deaths were recorded in Sivasagar district and one in Charaideo, according to the Disaster Reporting and Information Management System bulletin issued by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority on Saturday.
Of the overall toll, 65 deaths are classified as flood-related and one as an urban flood fatality.
Over 6 lakh people still affected
More than 6.54 lakh people across 10 districts – Golaghat, Charaideo, Kamrup, Hojai, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Kamrup (metropolitan) and Nagaon – remain affected, the ASDMA said. Sivasagar continues to bear the brunt, with close to 2.9 lakh people affected, followed by Charaideo at over 1.88 lakh and Jorhat at nearly 1.32 lakh.
The authority’s bulletin recorded 810 villages across 28 revenue circles as still submerged, with roughly 34,970 hectares of cropland under water. The Dhansiri and Dikhou rivers were among those flowing above the danger mark through the affected belt.
IAF pressed into service
Rescue and relief work has drawn in the National Disaster Response Force, the Assam State Disaster Response Force, and units of the Army and Air Force alongside district administrations and volunteers. The chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said Indian Air Force helicopters had been deployed to airdrop essential supplies into pockets that road access could not reach – a measure typically reserved for the state’s worst-hit years.
Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who reviewed relief operations in Sivasagar, described the situation as extremely critical, noting that entire families had lost both homes and relatives to the deluge. He said the Centre had assured Assam of complete support for relief and rehabilitation.
A central inter-ministerial team has since arrived in the state to assess the extent of the damage, a step that typically precedes the release of additional disaster relief funding from New Delhi.
PM reviews situation
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, spoke with Sarma to take stock of the rescue and relief effort under way across the affected districts. Modi conveyed condolences over the loss of life and reiterated the Centre’s commitment to support relief, rehabilitation and restoration work, the chief minister said.
Assam’s flood season this year has followed a now-familiar pattern: the Brahmaputra and its tributaries swelling under sustained monsoon rain, low-lying districts of upper and central Assam bearing the heaviest casualties, and forces including the Army and Air Force stepping in once civil administration capacity is stretched. The state recorded comparable or higher tolls in several recent seasons, underlining a recurring vulnerability that successive governments have flagged for stronger embankment and early-warning investment.
As RNA Media had reported earlier, the floods in Assam have coincided with a wider spell of monsoon destruction in the region. Flash floods and landslides in Jammu & Kashmir’s Poonch, Rajouri and Doda districts, and in Nagaland’s Mon district, killed at least 25 people in the preceding week, prompting the suspension of the Amarnath Yatra and other Himalayan pilgrimages. The India Meteorological Department has indicated that active monsoon conditions are likely to persist over the northeast for several more days.
Officials in Guwahati said relief camps and distribution centres remained operational across the affected districts, with food, medical aid and temporary shelter being extended to displaced families as the state awaited a sustained drop in river levels.