Rare Rhinos In Danger As Flooding Worsens In Assam

GUWAHATI — Floods in northeast India, including Assam, worsened on Tuesday with incessant rain swelling already raging rivers, inundating villages and Kaziranga National Park as 1,000 soldiers were deployed to rescue people fleeing the rising waters.

Heavy early monsoon rain has lashed parts of South Asia since last week, killing at least 119 people and forcing more than five million people from their homes in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

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Some areas of Pakistan have also been flooded.

The rain was easing on over parts of Nepal, Bangladesh and Bihar, where thousands have sough shelter in relief camps, officials said.

But Assam is still battling the monsoon, a four-month-long season that is responsible for most of the region’s annual rainfall, with 4.5 million people driven from their homes due to flooding, authorities said.

“This is one of the worst floodings in recent memory,” Assam’s Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta said.

Water levels in major rivers, including the Brahmaputra that flows down from the Himalayas through Assam and into Bangladesh, rose overnight, and an additional 200,000 people displaced, Mahanta said.

Traffic on the main road that runs the length of tea-growing Assam has also been disrupted, and rail links with some neighboring states have been severed by flooding.