It was another day of monsoon misery in the Northeast with five more people losing their lives in the deluge in Assam, while several places in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, including state capital Itanagar, were cut off by floods and landslides.
With all the districts of Manipur too reeling under rains and floods, the Centre today dispatched a team led by Union minister Kiren Rijiju to oversee rescue and relief operations in affected areas in the entire region.
The south-west monsoon, meanwhile, continued its advance, as it entered Punjab and parts of Haryana -- a week later than its expected arrival -- bringing moderate to heavy rains in the region.
The maximum temperature dropped sharply after showers lashed the region.
In Punjab, Amritsar recorded a high of 30.5 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal, after receiving a heavy downpour (153 mm). Ludhiana, too, was lashed by heavy showers (48 mm) and the maximum temperature in the industrial town settled at 30.3 degrees Celsius, four notches below normal.
In Haryana, Karnal recorded a maximum of 28.2 deg C, down five notches, after being lashed by showers. Ambala, which received heavy rain, recorded a high of 27.6 deg C, down seven notches.
Yamunanagar, Panipat, Jhajjar, Faridabad, Rewari, Rohtak, Panchkula, Bhiwani, Gurugram and Kurukshetra were among the other areas in Haryana that saw rains.
Back in Assam, the mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries submerged 2,500 villages, destroyed 1.06 lakh hectares of cropland, damaged infrastructure by breaching embankments and overrunning roads and bridges -- disrupting surface communication, an Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) official said.
With the fresh deaths, the toll in the state caused by the floods -- a yearly recurrence -- has gone up to 44. Nearly one lakh people have been forced to take shelter in 231 relief camps.
Nearly 75 per cent of World Heritage site Kaziranga National Park has been inundated leading to the drowning of two female hog deer and one male swamp deer in its Northern Range.
Manipur, meanwhile, has suffered a loss of around Rs 131 crore in the floods since cyclone Mora hit the state in late May, leading to floods and related incidents like landslides.
More than 20 per cent of its total paddy fields in five districts of the Imphal valley have been hit by the deluge.
In Arunachal Pradesh, Chief Minister Pema Khandu has directed the administration to issue orders for evacuation of people living in vulnerable areas of Itanagar to safer areas and appealed to people in such places to shift to relief camps.
The state capital was virtually cut off with its lifeline NH 415 getting totally eroded at the entry point, while the alternate road via Jullang remained blocked, leaving only one road -- through Hollongi enroute Lakhimpur district in Assam.
Yesterday, five persons had been killed and nine went missing as a massive landslide triggered by incessant rains hit eight dwellings in Papum Pare district.
Across Bihar, temperatures rose marginally as rains receded today but major towns of the state continued to face waterlogging due to previous downpours.
Though the rains subsided in Uttar Pradesh, several areas in Allahabad were flooded after showers today.
Heavy to very heavy rains continued to lash several parts of Himachal Pradesh as the monsoon remained active in the region. Water entered some low-lying residential areas in Una which received more than 140 mm of rains in past two days. The local Met office has predicted a wet spell in the region till July 17.
It was a typically humid day in the national capital as the maximum and minimum temperatures settled at 33.2 degrees Celsius 26 degrees Celsius -- both below the normal levels.
While 24.7 mm rainfall was recorded till 8.30 AM, no rain was received in the city during the day.
The local Met office has forecast overcast skies along with the possibility of light and moderate rains and thundershowers tomorrow.
In Rajasthan, light to moderate rainfall occurred at a few isolated places in Udaipur, Jaipur, Bharatpur, Jodhpur and Bikaner divisions in last 24 hours.
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