Monday, 9 July 2012

Flood Toll Rises, Damage Mounts in Northeast India

The death toll has risen to 121 as damage mounts from monsoon floods that devastated the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

Villagers are still finding bodies in receding waters. On Sunday the death toll stood at 121, including 16 buried in mudslides.

About half of the 2.2 million people who were displaced remain in makeshift shelters or with relatives or friends. The central government has offered $90 million in aid to the agricultural state, where at least 254,000 hectares (627,600 acres) of rice fields and other crops have been affected.

The floods also killed 559 animals in the Kaziranga game reserve, including more than 400 hog deer and 14 of its 2,300 endangered one-horned rhinos. State environment minister Rokybul Hussain called it a catastrophe.

- ABC NEWS (AP)

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