GUWAHATI, Aug 24: The Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Guwahati has been undertaking flood relief work in Bhatkuchi and Barmura villages under Rangiya subdivision and Cutting Par reserve and Bagdakali under Guwahati subdivision of Kamrup district.

The volunteers of the Mission have so far distributed 200 kg of beaten rice (sira), 50 kg of molasses (gur), 1,288 pieces of dhotis and saris to the affected people so far, a press release issued by the R.K. Mission Asharm said here.

The R.K. Mission Ashram volunteers have also distributed 2,250 kg of rice, 450 kg of dal and sanitation materials like phenol (25 litres) and bleaching powder (50 kg) to the affected people. The R.K. Mission Ashram has decided to extend the relief work in many other affected villages.

NALBARI, Aug 24: The flood situation in Nalbari district has improved as the waters of the Pagaldia and Mara Pagaldia rivers have receded. The flood situation in various places of Nalbari has improved in general, but the low lying areas are still flooded. The whole area of Sandha and Dakhania-Nambarbhag was submerged. The flood water swept away two portions at Sandha and Milan Chowk, putting the local people in great trouble.

Though the flood situation has improved, the affected people have not yet come back to their houses. It will be difficult for the villagers to settle down again because their houses have been destroyed and fields covered with sands. In such a situation, growing crops will not be possible.

The flood-affected people of Ratanpur village are known to have taken shelter in the local LP school under Tihu revenue circle. Some areas of village Sialmari, Uttarbali, Ratanpur, Bali are still flooded by Mara Pagaldia river. Thousands of flood-affected people of Barbori, Gopuja, Kardeltola, Bhumkuchi, Balikuchi have not yet started their normal life. It is reported that the flood waters have submerged the roads as well, disrupting communication network. As a whole, the flood waters have badly damaged the Tihu Akhara PWD road at Sialmari village and created large-scale destruction of thousands of hectares of crops.

Ms Rekha Rani Das Boro, the Social Welfare Minister, Assam visited all the above mentioned flood-affected areas and assured the villagers that relief will be provided as early as possible. The local MLA of Patacharkuchi, Mr Mohan Das also visited temporary relief camps at Ratanpur and took stock of the situation.

The district administration has made arrangements to provide food and other necessities for the relief camps. It is known that rice, sira, dal etc., were distributed among the flood-affected people. The Army has also joined in rescue and relief operations.

MANGALDOI, Aug 22: The role of the Army in the rescue and the relief operation during the recent devastating and unprecedented flood in Darrang district have widely been appreciated by the cross section of flood-affected people here. Due to the 150 metre breach of the western embankment of river Nonoi near the historic Khatara temple in Dipila area, a vast areas were inundated causing the complete isolation in the terms of road communication, food and fresh drinking water. The river Saktola also caused havoc in many areas and inundated the Mangaldai-Patharighat road in many portions under waist-deep flood water.

On the midnight of August 2, as per the instruction of Col J S Bawa, Commanding Officer, 5 Assam Regiment, Lt Santanu Mukhapadhyaya and Lt R C Badola rushed to Patharighat from Sipajhgar and two rescue task force swung into action round the clock. The Army boats were instrumental in saving the lives of marooned villagers. A pregnant lady was evacuated by the Army and shifted to Mangaldai Civil Hospital in Army vehicle. During this flood, this correspondent witnessed Col J S Bawa, Commanding Officer accompanied by Capt (Dr) Vishal Sondhi evacuating the marooned villagers in village Ganakpara under Mangaldai LAC. Wading through the waist deep flood water, Captain Sondhi also rendered treatment to the flood-affected patients and provided required medicines. The Army also made arrangements for transporting the relief materials to the various places by the boat.

In Duni, under Sipajhar LA C, Lt Prashant Patil led the rescue operation with the help of the members of Duni Club. Due to non-availability of both the engine and country boat, using make-shift rafts of the bannana trees, the jawans evacuated a number of marooned people. They also rescued four marooned pregnant ladies and later shifted them to the local hospital.

The Army camp in Duni were offered them ration from their allotment to about 1200 inmates of the relief camp at Duni HS School. The officers and jawans of the Army camp at Duni won the hearts of the people for rendering immense service during the recent flood that too without taking the arms in a place like Duni one known for the strong-hold of the ULFA.

CHHAYGAON, Aug 22: Extensive erosions of the Brahmaputra in some parts of the left bank in south Kamrup has been a matter of great concern, coinciding with the menace of yearly flood.

Over a stretch of 2 km in the left bank in Alikash under Chhaygaon constituency has been severely hit by the erosion. After the breach in the sub-embankment of the No.6 Palasbari-Nagarbera embankment in June 14, the intense water current has been over-flooding a vast tract of area. Over 450 hectares of agricultural land, apart form human habitations, has been under water and consequently the people are not being able cultivate their land for crucial ruwa crop. Besides, the poor farmers have lost their healthy boro crops in the first wave of flood. The land of Chhaygaon, Chamaria, Palasbari and Nagarbera revenue circles are the most flood affected areas, due to the 200 metres breached portion.

Meanwhile, the Government has hardly done anything to curbing erosion in the Alikash area. It is alleged that higher flood control officials has hardly visited the spot. The Circle Officer of Chhaygaon revenue circle alongwith local police team has been frequently visiting the spot. The Circle Officer has expressed serious disappointment over the flood control officials for not having set up camps to reside themselves in the nearby area.

It is believed that should there is not immediate anti-erosion measures, the entire affected land of the aforesaid revenue circles would be infertile due to heavy deposition of sand over the land. In addition, malaria and typhoid have been haunting the poor people. Over 40 erosion-affected families have been shifted and they are now residing on the No.6 embankment. Massive erosions has also been causing havoc in the Udmuri-Jahirpur area under Chhaygaon constituency.

Over 120 families are falling prey to the erosion at Bardia Char under Palasbari constituency (Palasbari-Gumi Flood Control Division) have shifted to nearby safer places. Till now over 400 metres stretch of the Char village has been eroded since the last one-and-half months. The erosion of the Brahmaputra has also hit Baniapara-Panikhaiti area and Simina area under Palasbari-Gumi project. At Banipara, the menacing erosion-site is just 10 to 12 metres away from the No.6 embankment which might collapse any time. Till the filing of this report, not even a single boulder in the name of anti-erosion measures has been dropped into the water nor did officials concerned visit the spot.

Asked to comment on the development, an official in the flood control department has told this correspondent that high-level officials have recently visited the vulnerable flood-prone areas and they would soon take up anti-erosion measures. The Health Minister Kamala Kalita has also visited the flood-affected Alikash area, recently.

TANGLA, Aug 22: On August 17, some few hundreds of public from various parts of Tangla, including men and women, entered the Tangla Police Station campus and gathered outside protesting against the picking up of two youths of Tangla town in the morning of August 17 by police and later forwarding them to the SP, Darrang, Mangaldai on allegation that they were involved in the act of breaking the Mangaldai-Bhutiasang PWD Road at Tangla on the night of August 2, at a time when large parts of Tangla were inundated by flood water. The version of police revealed that these two youths Mr Aminul Islam (Tulu) and Mr Gunjan Mahalia of Tangla town took lead in breaking the MB Road to let in the over-flooded water of Kulshi river.

The protesting members of public were arguing that on the night of August 2, the MB Road at the point in question got washed away of its own following heavy flow of Kulshi river and no member of the public had breached it. So Islam and Mahalia should be unconditionally released. The Circle Inspector of Police, Tangla, Mr Rai later took up the matter of public demand before the SP, Darrang, who after preliminary questioning unconditionally released Mr Islam and Mr Mahalia.

GUWAHATI, Aug 22: Although ravaged by the annual floods, Assam is going hi-tech in case of estimating the flood damages, thanks to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Assam Remote Sensing and Application Centre (ARSAC) which are using the services of a Canadian satellite 'Radarsat' to assess flood damages in the State for the first time.

The ISRO, along with the ARSAC, is using the services of the 'Radarsat' in Dhubri, Dhemaji and Morigaon districts, which have been identified as the worst-affected by the floods every year. The use of the 'Radarsat' is a part of the proposed nationwide disaster management system which envisages integrating space technology with relevant ground information.

A scientist at the ARSAC told The Sentinel that the Canadian satellite had already taken several photographs of various flood-affected areas in Dhubri, Dhemaji and Morigaon districts. The ARSAC has also started supplying information on flood water levels of the last decade along with the areas of inundation in upper, middle and lower Brahmaputra basins, media reports on flood damages and land resource data before the onset of floods to the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad. The NRSA is receiving the data and photographs being sent by the 'Radarsat', and analysing them.

Sources said that unlike other remote sensing satellites like the IRS and the Landsat, the Canadian satellite was equipped with microwave band having the capacity of penetrating inside the clouds and take pictures during the rainy season. But the normal satellites cannot take pictures during the rainy season, thus affecting the estimation of flood damages.

If the experiment of the Canadian satellite in the above mentioned three districts becomes successful, the ISRO will empower the ARSAC to use the services of the 'Radarsat' independently. At present the 'Radarsat' is operating from the ISRO headquarters.

About three years back the ARSAC had carried out similar surveys to assess flood damages in Morigaon district with the normal remote sensing satellite. But the project could not be successful.

The 'Radarsat' was used for assessing cyclone damage in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal a few years back. Pictures taken by the said satellite are of high standard and commensurate with international specifications, sources said.

The ARSAC sources said that as soon as the preliminary report of flood damage on the basis of the pictures and data of the 'Radarsat' was ready, the report will be submitted to the State Government for necessary verification. Sources added that the official estimate of flood damage is a manual exercise and thereafter it is not reliable.

Assessment of flood damage by the satellite implies huge funds, and ARSAC is facing severe financial constraints. The annual budget provision for the ARSAC from the non-plan head is only Rs 15 lakh which is too small for using the services of satellite like the 'Radarsat'.

BOKO, Aug 21: Thirty villages of Chamaria revenue circle under Boko LAC were badly affected by flood waters of the Brahmaputra and its tributary Kalahi. The affected villages are Goroimarichar, Lotoria, Pallimangal, Garurchar, Saru Arikati, Sontoli, Mahtoli, Malibari, Dekasang, Duramari, Bogoriguri, Kismat-Kathmi, Niz-kathmi and Chamaria satra. The flood waters of the rivers submerged vast areas of habitation, educational institutions, offices, market places and paddy fields. Erosion on both sides of the road disrupted communication. All the educational institutions and market places are reeling under flood waters. The affected people along with the domestic animals had to move to safe places. During the first wave of flood vast areas of paddy fields were damaged.

The recent floods caused extensive damages of standing crops and other agricultural produces in both Nalbari constituency and Bar-Khetri constituencies, our Ghograpar correspondent reported.

NEW DELHI, Aug 20: The recent flash floods in Arunachal Pradesh has left the experts clueless with a puzzled Ministry of Water Resources not ruling out defence implications of the floods, while it is still trying to figure out the cause of the floods, considered unprecedented.

Although news of floods in the distant North-East is no news for Delhi, the flash floods that hit the border State of Arunachal Pradesh in the month of June has made officials at the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Ministry of Water Resources sit up and notice. As officials pour over the technical data, a new dimension that the Chinese Army in Tibet as part of an experiment may have deliberately blasted the dam has been added to the already hazy picture.

According to Arunachal Pradesh MP, Nabam Rebia and confirmed by top officials here, puzzled by the nature of the floods and equally mysterious response of China, the Government of India's remote sensing agency hired a Canadian satellite to take a close look at the scene of the breach. "All the technical details and pictures of the area are with us now and confirm that a breach on a dam on the river Tsangpo had taken place leading to the flash floods in the North Eastern region," confirmed a senior official talking to this newspaper.

According to the official who had seen the technical data, the flash flood occurred because of a breach in a dam located in an area pinpointed as latitude 30.15 degrees north by 94.50 degrees east, in China controlled Tibet.

The river runs 1625 km as Tsangpo in Tibet, 918 km in India and 363 km in Bangladesh before falling into sea. In the North-east, the river is known as Siang in ArunachalPradesh and Brahmaputra in Assam.

The theory that the breach may have serious defence implications for the country has gained credence because of several unexplained events. Sources claimed that firstunusual aspect that came to the notice of the official was that the water level of Siang in Arunachal Pradesh, suddenly on June 11, recorded an increase of 30 meterswithin a span of less than 10 hour, a phenomenon considered unprecedented in the history of floods in the region.

Then came the response of Government of China to the floods. Interestingly, news reports by foreign news agencies quoted unnamed officials as confirming that a breachhad indeed occurred in a natural dam on the river in Tibet region. But when the Ministry of External Affairs contacted China it was conveyed that there was no floods on theChinese side on the river Brahmaputra and instead attributed it to the occurrence of floods on the Indian side to natural causes, revealed the Minister of State for External Affairs, Ajit Panja in the Parliament last week.

Officials suspect that the People Liberation Army of China may have blasted the dam to experiment the impact of the flash floods in the sensitive North-East and to study the potential such a flood may have to cause damage on the Indian side. The potential to cause damage, official concede, are enormous as the flash flood besides destroying properties, crops and leaving over 26 people dead, washed away three strategic bridges -- Sagarm, Dite Dimea and Nubo, all three considered crucial from the defence point of view.

The floods mainly affected the four districts of East Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh.

Then the officials came across publicity material of a German construction company that specialises in Dam construction called Lurgi claiming in its site on the internet as having built a pendulum dam in the area under adverse condition. However, the item was mysteriously withdrawn soon after the floods occurred and all attempts made by the Ministry of Water Resources have been stone walled by the Company, sources disclosed.

If the German Company as it claimed had built the dam then it contradicts the version of the engineer who was quoted as having said that the dam was natural and was created by soil erosion. The same engineer further stated that the dam was breached following rain in the area and despite massive attempt to canalise the river it could be saved.

Sources said they have to take all this very seriously because it is also the area where the Siang Hydel project is coming up. Impact of such a flood on the multi-purpose project has to be now factored in. In all, the Centre proposes to spend about Rs 25,000 crore on three multi-purpose projects in the area, official said.

Sources said a team of officials drawn from various fields including the CWC was going through the entire sequence of events and the technical data now in their possession to figure out exactly what happened.

NALBARI, Aug 18: Most of the places of Nalbari district remain cut-off from the nearest town or bazar with the beginning of monsoon. One can imagine the fate of people living in those areas which remain cut off from those bazars.

Every year, a major portion of the district planning cell is also diverted towards construction or repair of roads, but roads of Nalbari district remains in deplorable condition. People of Nalbari district living particularly in rural areas, far from district headquarters are the worst sufferers during the rainy season. The Tihu-Akhara PWD road, the Barama-Debachara-Subankhata road, the Musalpur-Kadamtala road, the KBS road, the Dhamdhama-Nalbari road are mentionable in this connection.

It is worth mentioning, the recent flood disrupted the communication as the Tihu-Akhara PWD road is still, under knee-deep water at village Sialmari. It is reportedly learnt that, the concerned department diverted about Rs 20 lakh for repairing the PWD road. A part of the amount was spent, but excess flood water of Marapagaladia river damaged the road to a great extent and as a result of which, people face great hardships. Still, the Barama-Pakhamara road is in need of proper maintenance as it was damaged in recent flood. The Baganpara Dhamdhama-Nalbari road is also in deplorable condition. The KBS road near Milan Chowk (Barama) was washed away by the sharp current of Marapagaladia river when breaching its embankment of the river in the recent flood.

The deplorable condition of Nikachi Musalpur-Kadamtala road connecting Bhutan territory is also a matter of concern, not only to the people using the road, but also the business establishments. The road links several DRDA rural road in the vast tribal areas of northern part of the district.

It is alleged, a huge amount was sanctioned for the development of PWD roads falling under BAC area from the fund of BAC, but roads are not properly repaired. The developmental works of those roads were reportedly substandard.

The border region (Bhutan foothill) of northern part of Nalbari, predominantly inhabitated by the aboriginals was found deprived of any modern surface communication facilities, even after 53 years of independence. Worse still, the fund alotted for the welfare of the plains tribal people has yet to have its impact on the matter.

MANGALDAI, Aug 18: A total population of 2,38,731 of 169 village with a total area of 1,56,360 bighas of land including the crop area of 1,28,196 bighas of land have severally been affected by the unprecedented devastating flood in the Darrang district. Following the incessant rain and the breach of a dam at the source of river Nonoi and Kulsi at it's source in Indo-Bhutan border, the flood created havoc in the Darrang district and places like Tangla which was never affected by the flood since 1950, was also severally affected. The Tangla town was submerged in waist-deep flood water and even the Tangla Police station was also submerged under flood water. The Mangaldai-Bhutiachung Road have been disrupted following the breach near Tangla PWD bungalow and the collapse of a wooden bridge at Bholabari near Kalaigaon and the entire northern area enriched with the forest resources and the tea gardens is still remaining cut-off from rest of the district as well as of the State. The only means of the communication is through the transhipment arrangement.

In this flood, a total number of 81,006 persons have to take shelter in 70 relief camps and relief centres 12 were opened while 34 villages have been evacuated and 744 number of, dwelling houses were damaged.

This wave of flood disrupted the entire road communication system of the district causing the isolation of various places. The river Nonoi washed away two long wooden bridge one at Dalangghat under Kalaigaon Police Station and the other bridge at Hapamara under Chairabari Police Station. The river Bhola breached the Udalguri-Barney PWD road at Harisinga while the wooden bridge is remaining safe. Montion may be made here that the wooden bridge over river Nonoi at Dalongghat on Tangla-Mahaliapara PWD road was reconstructed last year at the cost of Rs 14 lakh from DRDA. According to the officials of the Public Works Department (Roads), an approximate amount of Rs 2.50 crore will be required to restore the disrupted road communication including the bridges in the district. As at present, the department is facing acute financial crisis, hence, it appears that the restoration works will take a long period and the people will have to suffer a lot. Yet, the department in making effort to reconstruct the wooden bridge at Bholabari on MB Road. Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner, Darrang Mr Sanjoy Lohiya has submitted the detailed estimate to the Government with a request to sanction the required amount.

The agricultural powers of Sipajhar Mangaldai and Kalaigaon areas are the worst affected in the flood as their paddy cultivation have totally been damaged.

Most of the paddy fields have been filled up to the depth of 3 to 4 feet by the silt and sand making these lands totally useless for re-cultivation. Unless the Government takes necessary arrangements to provide the Rabi crop seed, the poor farmers shall have no alternative but to be the street beggar.

Meanwhile, Dr Zoii Nath Sarma, Revenue Minister, Assam who has been supervising the relief and rescue operation in the district, said that necessary arrangement, have already been made to tackle the post flood situation and the State Government to sanction required amount.

UDALGURI, Aug 17: The unabated erosion of Daisam river has created a severe threat for the Khairabari Nepaligaon under Udalguri mouza area. Several acres of paddy field has being submerged into the river.

Being one of the most backward village, the illiterate people do not even know to report the government departments. At the time of BDO's visit to this village, people urged him to sanction an erosion protection bundh to protect this village. But till date nothing has been achieved.

RANGIYA, Aug 16: The lifeline of the north-eastern region as well as the only road link between the region and the rest of the country -- the National Highway 31 is being gravely endangered due to the change of course by the Nona river and the consequent massive erosion during the recent spate of floods at Bhatkuchi near here.

The river whose floods caused extensive damage to the entire locality suddenly changed its course at bridge no 1078/2 from which point the Nalbari division of PWD begins. The PWD staff in charge of maintenance of the bridge and the road stretch there spent several nights in constant fear of its being washed off by heavy floods.

BK Das, executive engineer of the PWD's National Highway division informed that several temporary measures have already been taken up for minimising the damage by the river to the highway and to divert its course to the original one.

However, Das pointed out that curiously enough the Nona river bed has risen four-to-five feet above its normal height due to deposition of silt in huge amounts forcing her to change course.

He said unless the river bed was dredged properly, embankments strengthened and the height increased by at least 300 metres this problem would remain.

Das also said a proposal for raising the level of the highway stretch by upto 1.20 metre from the bridge point to several hundred metres has been hanging fire for a few years which if implemented would have saved the road from such threats.

Apart from the chaos that snapping of communication links entail, the immediate problem is the threat of inundation of four villages by the new course of the river in the event of another spate of floods.

Several hundreds of bighas of cultivable land have already been rendered useless by several feet of slush and silt. So far the changed river course is not posing a major problem as the river water is flowing out through a paddy field outlet and a network of drains.

Another important feature, Das pointed out, is that the recent floods have washed away the base structures of the NH 31 at several points leaving the upper part intact only by sheer strength of the soil and bitumen. But any moment these might cave in to strong floods.

He further said movement of overloaded trucks and buses should be curtailed or controlled so that the pressure upon the road is bearable.

Besides, this NH has to bear a much bigger burden of commercial vehicles everyday as the people prefer to take this road compared to the Jalukbari-Pancharatna stretch. On an average, this road caters to just less than 15,000 commercial vehicles on any given day and closing it for traffic even for a single day might cause havoc.

The expenditure for the repairing of the national highways are reimbursed by the Ministry of Surface Transport (MoST) through its regional office at Guwahati. This year, however, no one from the Ministry has visited the spot yet for verification of the situation.

Das has prepared an estimate of about Rs 12 lakh for temporary repairs of the stretch and another estimate of about Rs 79 lakh for permanent repair of the road.

GUWAHATI, Aug 16: A seven-member expert team from the International Federation of Red Cross Society has arrived here Wednesday on a week's visit to the state. Led by John Humphrey of British Red Cross, the team comprises five officials from the Federation's Geneva headquarters and two others from its Indian headquarters at New Delhi.

They will visit various flood-affected areas of the state starting with a tour of the Dhubri districty on Thursday. During their three-week stay in India the team would also visit some of the flood-hit areas of West Bengal and Bihar.

Speaking to The Northeast Daily immediately after their arrival, Humphrey, who also worked as manager programming in Cambodia, Malaysia and Tajakistan for the Red Cross, said the team will "look into the needs of the worst-affected people for the next three months." Basic needs like food, clean drinking water and materials like mosquito nets, utensils, tarpaulins, etc., will be specially looked into by the team, he said. The team will also try to prepare a plan of action by meeting the worst-affected people and discussing with the state branch of the Red Cross, he added.

The dlegation had a meeeting with chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta later in the day regarding the relief operations undertaken by the state government.

The other members of the team are Julian Jones, Jari, Luis Miguel Lesse Guero, Solveig. GK PIllai and Pankaj Mishra are the other team members. Meanwhile, in an alarming development, the Nona river has changed its course between Rangiya and Ghagrapara posing a serious threat to National Highway 31. The river is flowing parallel to the highway even as the PWD authorities are making their last ditch effort to save the road by putting up bamboo poles and sand bags.

Rangiya NH division executive engineer BK Das said that the river has washed way soil underneath the NH in more than three stretches. While the overall flood situation in the state is improving, Barak Valley is still cut-off from the rest of the country following landslides at National Highway 53 near Sonapur, government sources said. The highway has been closed for traffic since August 3.