Assam flood situation improves, death toll rises to 33

The flood situation in Assam improved marginally today, even as the death toll increased to 33 with the recovery of a body, an official report said.

A population of 41,065 continued to be in the grip of the flood waters in five districts as against the 51,400 people in seven districts yesterday, the daily bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.

The body of a person, who had been missing since July 3, was recovered in Udalguri district, taking the death toll in flood-related incidents to 33, the report added.

The water level of most of the rivers was maintaining a receding trend, but vast tracts of land in the five districts of Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Barpeta and Nagaon were still under the flood waters, the report said.

A total of 58 villages were affected by the floods and a crop area of 2,156.88 hectares was damaged, it added.

The authorities had set up 19 relief camps in Dhemaji and Lakhimpur, where 2,428 people had taken shelter, the ASDMA report said.

Heavy erosion was reported from Biswanath and Baksa districts, it added.

Embankments, roads, bridges and culverts have been damaged in Barpeta, Lakhimpur, Baksa, Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar.

The Brahmaputra river was flowing above the danger mark at Nematighat in Jorhat district and the Jia Bharali was flowing above the danger mark at the NT Road crossing in Sonitpur, the report added.