Famous for its tea plantations, the northeast state is affected by floods and landslides each year during the monsoon season. But this year’s deluge comes as the country is struggling to stem the spread of the coronavirus. India has recorded over a million confirmed cases, the third highest in the world after the United States and Brazil.
The virus is spreading rapidly in Assam, infecting more than 1,000 people every day for the past week. In total, the state of approximately 25 million people has reported more than 25,000 cases, including 58 deaths.
Meanwhile, the flood has affected more than 2.4 million people in 24 of Assam’s 33 districts. It has also inundated large areas of a national park, killing more than 100 wild animals, including a dozen rhinos.
Vulnerable wildlife under threat
Spanning more than 160 square miles (414 square kilometers) on the flood plains of the Brahmaputra River, Kaziranga National Park is home to the largest tiger, elephant and rhinoceros.
The largest of the rhino species, the one-horned rhinoceros, was once near extinction as they were hunted for sport or killed as agricultural pests. In the early 20th century, there were only around 200 of them left in the wild, but successful conservation has brought them from the edge.
However, more than 80% of the park is now underwater and 113 wild animals – including about a dozen rhinos – They have drowned, according to park officials.
Park authorities were able to rescue about 140 animals, authorities said.
“Every year at this time, animals move and pass through the animal corridor,” said Sivakumar. “We have put more labor into the corridor so they can make sure the animals are safe.”
Take refuge during a pandemic
The Assam government has issued guidelines on preventive measures for Covid-19 in relief camps, requiring that “all possible measures be taken to ensure hygiene and social distancing” to the “maximum extent possible”.
These steps include placing people over 60 in separate relief camps or in a separate area of the camps, distributing face masks, and ensuring an adequate and available supply of soap and disinfectants.
Authorities are also required to regularly disinfect the camps and conduct randomized coronavirus swab tests, according to the guidelines.
Charu Chakravorty, the director of a secondary school in the Assam Barpeta district that became a relief camp, said the district government had released the school masks to distribute to the 27 families taking refuge there.
“We maintain an adequate distance by ensuring that only two families live in one classroom and five in the great room, it would normally be at least twice as many people in the same area,” he said.
“We are constantly talking to the residents of the camp and we are telling them about the importance of social distancing, so people are being cautious,” he added.
Thurani Nath, 65, has been living at school with his wife and son for more than three weeks. The school offers separate classrooms for people over 60 and their families.
“I am definitely very afraid of the virus, I know it affects older people the most, so I am doing my best to keep my distance,” he said.
“But I can’t sit idle, so I help with daily camp tasks as much as possible.”
Floods throughout the region.
Heavy monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across the region.
In Nepal, 114 people died and 48 are still missing due to devastating floods and landslides, authorities said Monday.
Massive landslides were reported Monday in 12 different locations, killing several people and displacing dozens, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The Prithvi highway, Nepal’s key transportation route connecting the western part of the country to the capital Kathmandu, has been blocked in several sections after being hit by multiple landslides, authorities said.
Water levels in Nepal’s 10 main rivers have exceeded the warning mark and people living nearby have been warned to be alert, the Interior Ministry said.
In Bangladesh, nearly a third of the country, and a fifth of its population, have been affected by the floods, Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, spokesman for the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center, told CNN last week.
Hundreds of schools across Bangladesh have become shelters for the displaced.
Jahangir Alam, a farmer in the Sunamganj district who had sent his family to one of the shelters, said the last time he saw a flood as dangerous as this in 2004.
“More than 20 acres of my paddy field were left underwater. My home is waist-deep underwater,” he said.
The situation is unlikely to improve anytime soon as Nepal, Bangladesh and Northeast India will continue to see very heavy rains this week.
CNN’s Sugam Pokharel and Abir Mahmud contributed to the reports.
.
