TEHRAN, July 14, YJC - Torrential rains, floods and landslides in northeastern India have left at least 83 people dead in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Authorities told Reuters that a whopping two million people had been displaced.
"Assam is the worst hit with 53 lives lost so far in floods and landslides with some 2 million people displaced," Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on Friday.
"Relief and rescue operations are going on a war footing," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered a team of federal government officials, led by a junior minister, to visit, inspect and assess the damage in the area.
The overflowing Brahmaputra River has also completely marooned the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary in Assam, forcing animals to flee the area.
Assam's forest minister, Pramila Rani Brahma, told Reuters the heavy rain and floods over the past two weeks had also killed three rare one-horned rhinoceros at the national park that has the world's largest concentration of the species.
The Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, is home to an estimated 2,500 rhinos out of a world population of some 3,000.
Nearly 60 other animals, mostly deer and wild boars, have been killed in the floods, she said.
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