New Delhi: The overall flood situation in Assam improved marginally on Tuesday with the number of people affected by the floods sliding down to 45,774, as compared to 65,652 on Monday.


According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 45,700 people are hit due to the floods in five districts- Chirang, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh and Sivasagar.


No loss of life was reported due to the floods from the state over the past 24 hours. The deluge had claimed two lives on Monday, taking the total death toll due to the floods to 14 this year. Both casualties were reported from the state’s Sonitpur district.


Altogether 247 villages in 15 revenue circles are still inundated by the flood waters. Sivasagar is the worst-affected district with a total population of 22,885 still reeling under flood waters followed by Dhemaji with as many as 20,530 people being affected.   


While 1,528 people have been affected in Chirang, another 531 people in Dibrugarh, and 300 people have been displaced by the floods in Darrang district.


A total of 1,219 people are still taking shelter in nine relief camps set up by the respective district administrations across the eight affected districts of Sivasagar, Dhemaji, Charaideo, Chirang, Darrang, Dibrugarh, Golaghat and Sonitpur.


The district administration has been providing relief materials through four relief distribution centres.


A total of 21,387 domestic animals have also been affected in the current spate of floods.


At present, 247 villages are under water and 5,743.09 hectares of crop areas have been damaged, ASDMA said. 


While five houses were damaged in Chirang district by the surging flood waters, a couple of schools have been submerged under the flood water in Charaideo district’s Sonari.


Altogether four medical teams in Sivasagar and one in Dibrugarh district have been deployed to treat the people suffering from various health problems.  


River Brahmaputra is still flowing above the danger level at Dhubri, Tezpur and Jorhat district’s Neamatighat.


Assam with a vast network of rivers, tributaries and distributaries is prone to flood and erosion which has badly affected the overall development of the state.


The major rivers of the state, Brahmaputra and Barak, having over 50 tributaries feeding them, causes devastation during the annual floods during the monsoon season.


The flood-prone areas of the state are four times the national mark of the flood-prone areas of the country.


Assam has faced major problems due to flooding and erosion post-independence. The state has witnessed the deadliest floods in 1954, 1962, 1972, 1977, 1984, 1988, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012, and 2023.


During these years, almost three to four waves of floods have devastated the state.


The annual average loss due to floods in the state has been estimated to be of Rs 200 crores.


The loss in the year 1998, which saw one of the worst-ever floods in the state, was to the tune of Rs 500 crores, while a loss of Rs 771 crores was reported in 2004.