23 killed in Assam thunderstorms, flood inundates Kaziranga Park

GUWAHATI - The Assam government Tuesday said 23 people were killed and more than 150,000 affected in the thunderstorms that lashed the state over the past 10 days, even as flash floods displaced some 300,000 people and inundated half of the famed Kaziranga National Park.

Assam Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Bhumidhar Barman said almost all the 27 districts in the state were hit by thunderstorms, the worst being April 24 with a wind speed of 108 km per hour that left a trail of destruction.

\”This is the worst ever disaster in recent memory with the state being lashed by several spells of thunderstorms,\” Barman told IANS.

A government statement said 23 people were killed Saturday and an estimated 150,000 people affected by the thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rains.

\”More than 60,000 homes were damaged in thunderstorms that swept the state since March 27 in separate spells with varying magnitudes,\” the statement said.

The state government announced compensation of Rs.100,000 each to the next of kin of those killed, besides cash to those whose homes were damaged.

\”District officials have been asked to give cash to the people whose houses are damaged after spot verification,\” Barman said.

A state disaster management control room was opened in Guwahati to monitor the situation with the local weather office warning of thundersqualls with wind speeds of 60 km per hour in the next 48 hours over Assam.

Meanwhile, flash floods triggered by heavy rains have displaced more than 300,000 people in an estimated 500 villages in Assam, besides claiming the lives of two people.

A government spokesperson said the worst hit districts so far are Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Jorhat, Nagaon, Golaghat, and Tinsukia in eastern Assam.

\”Most of the flood hit people are now taking shelter on raised platforms, railway tracks, and also in government schools and offices that are untouched by the floods,\” the minister said.

A Central Water Commission bulletin said the Brahmaputra and its tributaries were flowing above the danger mark in at least eight places.

Gushing floodwaters had breached at least four vital mud embankments in the state besides inundating more than 50 percent of the internationally famed 430 sq km Kaziranga National Park, 220 km east of here.

Floodwaters of the mighty Brahmaputra Monday entered the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary in Assam, forcing scores of endangered animals to flee the park to safer areas, officials said.

\”More than half of the Kaziranga National Park is under water. Animals are migrating from the sanctuary to an adjoining hill for safety,\” a park warden said.

Kaziranga is home to the world\’s largest concentration of one-horned rhinoceros. As per the 2009 census report, some 2,048 of the world\’s estimated 3,000 one-horned rhinos lumber around the swamps and grasslands of Kaziranga, their concentration here ironically making the giant mammals a favourite target of poachers.

Park authorities Tuesday enforced prohibitory orders asking truckers to drive slowly as they travel on a national highway that winds through the park.\”Special barricades have been put along the highway. Forest guards are asking drivers to travel at speeds below 40 km an hour as the animals use the highway to cross over to the hill to escape the floods,\” the park warden said.

A large number of animals, including deer, get mowed down by speeding trucks while crossing the highway to escape the annual floods. At least 70 animals, including rhinos and wild buffaloes, were drowned in 2004.

Park officials are now worried about poachers killing animals, especially rhinos and elephants, as they move from the sanctuary towards the hills.