Thousands homeless as monsoons bring more flood havoc

Torrential rains today caused more flooding in India’s remote northeast, affecting more than 50,000 people and cutting a key land route, officials said.

After receding for days, major rivers in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh states overflowed, inundating new areas.

More than 750,000 people have now lost homes or livestock in three weeks of monsoon floods, the officials said.

Biswaranjan Samal, government administrator in the eastern Assamese district of Dhemaji, said a portion of National Highway 52 in Assam state the only land access into Arunachal Pradesh from the rest of India was washed away.

‘‘Since last night, fresh areas have been flooded in the district. Rivers had been receding since four or five days,’’ Samal said by telephone from Dhemaji, 300 miles (500 kilometres) east of Gauhati, the capital of Assam.

Severe damage to homes, government property and roads was also reported in the Dhemaji area, he said.

The Brahmaputra, the main river of northeastern India, was flowing 1 metre (3.3 feet) above the danger mark and was threatening to overflow its banks, Samal said.

Workers of the army’s Border Roads Organisation were struggling to repair the roads in the face of strong rains and mudslides, the official said.

In Arunachal Pradesh, a picturesque state spanning snowy Himalayan slopes, 300 people were evacuated from their homes after a severe mudslide near the state capital Itanagar, officials said.

Thousands of people in the state are camping in schools and government buildings after their mud houses were washed away.