Heavy rains wreak havoc in Manipur, West Bengal; lakhs affected

New Delhi: The depression created from cyclone Komen, which has been hovering over Bangladesh, has triggered heavy rain in India’s northeastern and eastern states, flooding large swathes of West Bengal and killing 20 people in Manipur.

Odisha, West Bengal and Manipur were hit hardest by the heavy rains that began late on Friday.

In Manipur, at least 20 people were killed and several houses swept away as a landslide devastated a village in Chandel district, which borders Myanmar. The death toll is likely to increase and many people are still missing, officials said.

Many houses in Hollenjang, Wayang and Tuitung villages were swept away by landslides. Areas in and around state capital Imphal and its outskirts were submerged.

Almost all important rivers, including Imphal, Iril, Nambul and Kongba that pass through Imphal West and Imphal East districts, are flowing above the danger mark.

Several hundred people living on riverbanks have been moving to safer places.

In West Bengal, more than 1.8 million people in 5,600 villages across 12 districts were affected by rains and flooding. Of them, more than 1.1 million people were moved to relief camps.

Several roads in the northern and southern parts of state capital Kolkata were under knee-deep water. Arterial roads such as Central Avenue, Park Street, Theatre Road, Hospital Road, Amherst Street and Diamond Harbour Road were waterlogged, causing traffic snarls.

The Kuye river, flowing above the danger level for the past few days, flooded several villages along its banks, including Miriti in Birbhum, from where President Pranab Mukherjee hails.

The situation worsened after a bridge that connects the village with the rest of the district collapsed. Miriti now resembles an island.

Officials of the West Bengal disaster management department said two people were killed since Saturday, taking the death toll over the past week to 39.

Both state and national highways in several districts were damaged, affecting traffic. While traffic on NH 60 was severely affected in Birbhum, the administration in Murshidabad stopped traffic on the state highway connecting Kandi and Salar after the road was flooded.

In neighbouring Odisha, 10 villages were marooned. Around 479,000 people in 597 villages were affected by floods.

"All the major rivers in the state are flowing below the danger level. However, inflow of rain water from West Bengal, where heavy rainfall occurred under the effect of cyclonic system Komen, has caused marooning of some more villages in Balasore district," special relief commissioner GVV Sarma said.

The rains also affected neighbouring Myanmar, were 27 people were killed and more than 150,000 affected by flooding. The government declared the four worst-hit areas in central and western Myanmar as "national disaster-affected regions".

The severe flooding across Myanmar hampered rescue efforts and thousands took shelter in monasteries.

India’s met department said cyclone Komen, which made landfall in Bangladesh on Thursday, has remained practically stationary there and weakened into a depression.

The weather phenomenon will move west-­northwest and gradually weaken into a well-marked low-pressure area, officials said.