Assam floods worsen, 7 more die; Bihar lightning toll 32

The flood situation in Assam turned critical on Monday with seven more people losing their lives, while in Bihar, the toll from lighting strikes mounted to 32.

A whopping 12.55 lakh people across 20 districts in Assam have been hit hard by the calamity, a recurring phenomenon every year.

With the fresh deaths, the total number of people losing their lives in this year's flood-related cases has gone up to 33, including seven in the state's largest city Guwahati.

In the neighbouring north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, incessant rains for the past three days triggered landslides and flash floods, claiming the life of a 3-year-old girl who was tragically washed away on Sunday. Major rivers in the state are flowing above the danger level while surface communication was disrupted at many places along the NH-415 that links Assam with Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.

The Met department predicted more rainfall over the next few days.

Bihar's Disaster Management Department Principal Secretary Pratyay Amrit said that the 32 deaths in lightning strikes include four in the state capital Patna. The toll reported on Sunday was 16.

The hardest-hit districts of Rohtas and Vaishali have reported five deaths each, he said. The state has been receiving intermittent rain over the past few days. Amrit said the state government would soon launch a lightning-tracker app that would alert people about thunder and lightning.

With several parts of Uttar Pradesh too receiving heavy rains, major rivers including the Ganga have started rising while Ghaghra and Sharda are flowing above the danger mark at some places.

Heavy rains have lashed some parts of the state with Birdghat (Gorakhpur) recording 130.4 mm, Basti 90 mm, Mahrajganj 78.2 mm rainfall today, a Central Water Commission report said.

The Met office in the state said light to moderate rain or thundershowers have occurred at many places in the eastern region and at a few places in the western districts.

Heavy rains lashed several parts of Himachal Pradesh as well, triggering landslides in interior areas of Mandi and Kangra but all major highways were open for traffic.

The local MeT office has warned of heavy rains at isolated places in mid and lower hills of Kangra, Mandi, Sirmaur, Shimla, Solan and Bilaspur on July 11 and 12 and predicted a wet spell in the region for next six days upto July 15.

The national capital, meanwhile, experienced a sunny day with the maximum temperature settling at 38 degrees celsius, two notches above the season's average.

The minimum temperature settled at 30 degrees, three notches above the normal, said a Met department official.

The humidity oscillated between 73 and 44 per cent.

The Met office has forecast overcast skies with the possibility of rain and thundershowers in the evening on Tuesday.

It was a similar story in Punjab and Haryana, where maximum temperatures today stayed few notches above normal with the high humidity leaving people sweltering.

UT Chandigarh, joint capital of of the two states, recorded a maximum temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius, three degrees above normal.

In Haryana, Ambala and Hisar registered maximum temperature of 37.7 and 39.8 degrees Celsius respectively, up to three degrees above normal.

In Punjab, Amritsar recorded a high of 37.4 degrees Celsius while Ludhiana and Patiala witnessed maximum of 36.7 deg C and 37.7 deg C, also up to three notches above normal.