India | Updated Sep 23, 2008 at 03:35pm IST

Millions battle floods, await relief-rescue

Mathura/Nashik: As heavy rains continue to lash northern and eastern parts of the country, 49 people have been reported killed over the past two days alone.

Authorities rushed on Tuesday to rescue hundreds of thousands trapped in their homes.

Most of the dead were from the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, where 32 people were killed by drowning, house collapses and electrocution since Monday.

The natural disaster was compounded as most rivers in the state spilled their banks, state relief commissioner G.K. Tandon told AP on Tuesday.

Several districts of the state are facing flash floods with the release of more water from Banbasa Barrage in Nepal.

In Ayodhya, the river Ghaghra is flowing above the danger mark and that has affected upto 200 villages.

People living in low-lying areas of Mathura too, are leaving their homes for safer places. Water levels of the Yamuna continue to rise.

The latest reported deaths brought the toll of those killed by monsoon flooding to 163 over the last four days.

Another 70 people were killed over the weekend in the state and floods forced 200,000 people to flee their homes, Tandon said.

The state government set up more than 2,000 relief camps across Uttar Pradesh to house the flood survivors.

In Orissa, the death toll over the last four days from heavy rains and flooding rose to 29. On Monday 17 people were reported to have died.

Authorities evacuated nearly 285,000 people since Friday and put them in 261 state-run relief camps, authorities told AP. Officials were trying to reach an addition 200,000 stranded villagers.

The Navy has been called in as the monsoon is not about to end soon and people in peril need to be taken to safer places.

Stranded villagers received some relief when three Indian air force helicopters dropped food and 1,300 motor and row boats were engaged in rescuing people in the worst hit districts.

The Mahanadi river breached its banks in several places due to incessant monsoon precipitation. These could well be the worst floods in 26 years for Orissa.

Hmachal Pradesh too faced landslides which killed over 32 people in four days, most buried by mudslides triggered by heavy rains.

Western India is inundated with floods too. In Nashik, water levels of the Godavari are still above the dangermark and there are reports of people being stranded. State officials have set up tin sheds for displaced people.

These fresh floods come close on the heels of the deluge brought by the Kosi on the state of Bihar.

Nearly 1000 villages are submerged and hundreds had died in the floods in the eastern state. The floods had rendered at least a million people homeless.

The annual monsoon season, which runs from June to September, brings rains that are vital to agriculture in the country but also can cause massive destruction.

(With inputs from Associated Press)

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