By IANS,
Guwahati : The overall flood situation in Assam has worsened since Sunday with flood waters now affecting eight districts, officials said. No casualties, however, have been reported yet.
Thousands of people have been affected in all the eight districts after the first wave of floods hit the state about a week back. The surging waters of many rivers have submerged large habitations and many people had to abandon their houses.
official sources said the flood waters have also damaged standing crop in over 200 hectares across the state in the past one week.
There were, however, no reports of any loss of human lives in the floods so far, the sources added.
The state revenue department has asked authorities in all affected districts to make an estimate of the total damages to crops and property, the sources said.
The state government has also asked the Public Works Department (PWD) and Inland Water Resource (IWT) department to make an assessment about breach or damages of dykes across the state and asked the departments to initiate repair works soon after the flood water recedes.
Although the waters are showing receding trends in many places, the flood situation continues to remain grim in Nalbari, Barpeta and Chirang districts of Lower Assam, the sources said.
The administration of Bokakhat civil subdivision in Upper Assam’s Golaghat district has decided to restrict the speed of vehicles plying along NH-37 near Kaziranga National Park to 40 km an hour to protect wild animals from speeding vehicles.
“As the floods have started to enter the Kaziranga National Park, some of the animals will move to higher locations in the neighbouring Karbi Anglong Hills by crossing the NH 37 that bifurcates the national park,” said the source in the forest department.
Hoardings have been put up at various places along the stretch of NH 37 in the national park to restrict the speed limit to 40 km per hour, officials added.
The forest department has also intensified the anti-poaching operations inside the national park, as the poachers often take advantage of the floods to hunt animals.