Floods, Landslides in India's Tripura Displace Tens of Thousands
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Soldiers in lifeboats ferried people to safety in India's northeastern state of Tripura on Friday after heavy rain triggered floods and landslides, forcing more than 65,000 people from their homes and killing 23, authorities said.
Television images showed army personnel manning the rescue craft, while cars and buses were marooned in streets of knee-deep water, and disaster management officials said four days of incessant rain had swelled rivers.
The displaced have gathered in 450 camps, the officials said, with a total of about 1.7 million affected, along with extensive damage to infrastructure, crops and livestock, Reuters reported.
Most deaths were caused by landslides, though some followed the collapse of mud walls and drowning, another disaster management official said on condition of anonymity.
The Indian Army said more than 80 of its personnel joined in rescue efforts, bringing to safety 334 people stranded by rising floodwaters.
In Bangladesh, the Gomti broke through an embankment late on Thursday, inundating at least 15 villages and displacing hundreds of families, officials and witnesses said.
In the capital, Dhaka, some people alleged this week that the floods were caused by the opening of Dumbur dam sluice gates on the Gomti in India's Tripura, an assertion New Delhi has rejected as incorrect.
The death toll from the flooding rose to 13 in Bangladesh, with over three million people stranded, according to the disaster management ministry.