Millions marooned, 125 dead in east India flooding

Villagers carry their belongings through a flooded highway in Calcutta

September 22, 2000
Web posted at: 6:53 PM HKT (1053 GMT)

CALCUTTA, India (Reuters) -- Up to 10 million people have been marooned by massive flooding in eastern India that has claimed 125 lives over the past five days, officials said on Friday.

Thousands of displaced people took shelter on railway platforms and inside trains in central and northern districts of West Bengal state, and some 500,000 people were lodged in relief camps.

Army choppers dropped packets of molasses and rice to villagers stranded in a sea of water, and the state government called for a second company of soldiers equipped with boats and helicopters to help out.

"The situation is very grim, and only the army can help us," state Chief Minister Jyoti Basu told reporters late on Thursday.

"We have no dearth of funds and material, but rescuing the marooned people is the prime concern now, and only the army can help in this matter."

The flooding, triggered by torrential rains as the annual monsoon ended its journey across the country, took a dramatic turn for the worse on Thursday when sluice gates of three major rivers were opened to avoid the break-up of dams.

However, water levels were already falling after an overnight break in the rains and the meteorological office said a dry spell lay ahead.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement that it had sent a team to the worst-affected districts, Birbhum, Murshidabad and Burdwan, to assess the situation and plan for immediate relief operations.

The federation is already assisting 200,000 victims of flooding which inundated vast areas of West Bengal and the neighbouring states of Assam and Bihar in August and killed more than 300 people.

In Burdwan district, at least 10 trains stationed in sheds at various stations were occupied by villagers who had been washed out of their homes.

"The trains have turned into makeshift camps," said a district official, who asked not to be named. "People are cooking and sleeping inside the trains with their cattle and other livestock."

State Deputy Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya told reporters that 20 trucks carrying relief material to flood-swamped areas of Murshidabad district had gone missing. Officials said the vehicles could have been stranded or looted.

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