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Army called in as 60 people die in UP floods

As many as 60 human beings and 273 cattle have perished so far in the 13 districts of India's northern state, Uttar Pradesh, which is currently in in the grip of floods.

With three major rivers -- the Ghagra, Rapti and Gandak -- in spate following heavy rains in the catchment areas, large parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh have been affected by the floods. The army had to be called in at Nagwa village, Deoria, on the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar border, where 52 villages were marooned as a result of water gushing through sudden deep breaches in the embankment along the Rapti river on July 24.

According to UP Relief Commissioner Ashok Kumar, as many as 40,000 people have been evacuated from the affected areas. Maximum casualties (13) were reported from Basti, followed by Siddharthnagar in the neighbourhood, where 12 people died while 10 deaths were reported from Gorakhpur. Kushinagar, a major Buddhist centre, was also badly affected by the floods as large parts of the district was inundated.

Kumar said Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Ballia, Azamgarh, Gonda and Lakhimpur-Kheri were among the other affected areas. The floods have disrupted the normal life of more than 1,500,000 people. The loss to agriculture was still being estimated, as more than 127,000 hectares of cultivated land was under flood water.

While Kumar is apprehensive about the on-going monsoons causing more misery in the coming months, he claimed, "The state government is in full preparedness to provide relief to the affected people through the 120 relief centres that have already been set up in different places."

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