Assam, India – The once-picturesque northeastern state of Assam is reeling from an unprecedented and devastating flood, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake. The deluge, triggered by a relentless monsoon season and exacerbated by years of unchecked deforestation, has claimed over 100 lives and displaced an estimated 700,000 people, disrupting the lives of millions and plunging the region into an agonizing crisis.
The disaster began on July 19th, when his phone rang at approximately 11:00 AM, triggering a frantic response from his wife, Dipika, who described a scene of utter panic. ‘I could only see my wife telling me ‘This is it for us. We are going to die,’ before the call was disconnected,’ Panika recalled, speaking to Al Jazeera.
It was the last time they spoke. Moments later, rising waters from the nearby Dikhow River, which snakes past their village in Sivasagar district, surged into their bamboo-and-mud home with a ferocious current and swept away Dipika and four-year-old daughter Radhika. ‘The water came flooding like sea waves, and they were gone in a flash,’ Panika said, as he stood in front of the ruined home he has since returned to.
Sivasagar is part of the eastern Assam region, also referred to as Upper Assam, and in recent weeks, Assam has experienced unrelenting rainfall between July 18th and July 20th, resulting in extensive flooding across the entire region and neighboring Nagaland. The monsoon floods usually impact northern and western Assam, and parts of central Assam, the worst.
However, several Nagaland districts bordering Upper Assam received heavy rainfall on those three days, leading to dozens of landslides. This intense run-off swelled Naga Hills-origin rivers and caused devastation downstream. The resultant floods killed more than 100 people, destroyed 2,700 villages, and displaced 700,000 people across the state. The state government states 1.2 million people were impacted in all, their lives disrupted.
The state government says 1.2 million people were impacted in all, their lives disrupted.
Several riverine villages in Sivasagar have been wrecked by debris carried down by the waters of the Dikhow River in Prajabasti, another affected village, 75-year-old Asor Ali sat in disbelief next to his wife, Jamila Khatun.
‘Even the generations preceding me have not seen a flood like this,’ he said, staring at the flowing river. ‘Even the 1950s earthquake that triggered the floods here did not do so much damage.’
Das and his friend Shravan Prasad, from the neighboring Bihubor village, said they saved at least 1,000 lives by using boats the two villages had at that time. ‘We put together a group of friends with the seven boats and started rescuing people turn by turn for two days and nights without food and water,’ Prasad said.
Das said the floods forced residents to take shelter on the roofs of concrete homes they could find, as cries for help and the sounds of the river washing away homes echoed in the neighbourhood.
Laxmi Sharma, who owned one such concrete house, said she provided shelter to at least 60 people on her terrace after the river water gushed into Nepali Khuti.
‘People ran towards the roof of my building. We thought we were going to die,’ Sharma, 46, told Al Jazeera. ‘But it is a miracle that we are still alive even though my house was barely out of water.’
Not everyone could escape the flood’s wrath, though. In Sivasagar’s Simaluguri village, two friends – Reihana Ahmed, a Muslim, and Ratul Swarna, a Hindu, both in their 30s – were swept away in the torrent in the torrent.
When Ahmed, a mother of two, was drowning as the deluge entered her village, Swarna, who did not know how to swim, jumped to save her without thinking about his life.
The two friends were later found dead in the paddy fields. ‘It was humanity that won in a disaster like this,’ Ahmed’s husband Aminul Haque said with a sorrowful smile.
Besides the eroding banks of the Dikhow River in Prajabasti, another flood-affected village, 75-year-old Asor Ali sat in disbelief next to his wife, Jamila Khatun.
‘Even the generations preceding me have not seen a flood like this,’ he said, staring at the flowing river. ‘Even the 1950s earthquake that triggered the floods here did not do so much damage.’
Al Jazeera travelled along the Assam-Nagaland border and saw signs of deforestation on the hills and mining activities in both the states.
Satellite images also confirmed rampant coal mining in Nagaland’s Mon district, and stone mining crushers on Assam’s side, especially in Bihubor, one of the epicentres of the Assam flood.
While Mon’s Deputy Commissioner Wennyei Konyak acknowledged the possibility of illegal mining in the district, he added that the land was protected under Indian laws to uphold the rights of Indigenous tribes, and therefore government interference in the area was limited.
“I would not blame mining activities for the flood. It was just the wrath of nature,” Rahman said. “The unrestrained stone extraction from the Dikhow riverbed has damaged the river’s natural cushion,” “That means the river loses the capacity to resist high flows of torrents that break embankments and cause floods.”
An official document from 2022, seen by Al Jazeera, also highlights mining as a factor in possible large-scale floods downstream on the Assam side.
Al Jazeera reached out to senior district officials in Sivasagar as well as state government officials for their comments on allegations of unchecked coal mining but did not get any response.
Back in Prajabasti village, Ali, the septuagenarian, is mentally preparing himself for future floods.
‘It will happen again, so long as there is greed for land and coal in humans,’ he said. ‘Nature pays them back.’
The disaster has exposed the vulnerability of Assam’s infrastructure and highlighted the urgent need for comprehensive disaster preparedness and sustainable land management practices, emphasizing the critical importance of mitigating the impact of climate change and balancing economic development with environmental protection. The death toll is expected to rise significantly in the coming days, and the region is grappling with an immense humanitarian crisis.
Assam has been facing severe weather events for several years, with a record-breaking monsoon season in 2020 and 2021 significantly impacting the state’s economy and infrastructure. The flood serves as a stark reminder of the potential consequences of ignoring these warnings.
This devastating event underscores the critical need for improved flood management strategies, robust early warning systems, and a concerted effort to protect vulnerable communities and ecosystems.
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Source: Al Jazeera
