Heavy rains and thundershowers drenched the National Capital on Tuesday, bringing down the mercury to 34 degrees. The rains were welcome change after Monday’s weather when the temperature soared to 38 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season’s average. The humidity during the day oscillated between 73 and 44 per cent, making onset of week a difficult one.
Meanwhile, the rains lashed the other parts of North and East India, including Allahabad, Moradabad, Patna and Kolkata, bringing life to a standstill.
The flood situation in Assam turned critical on Monday with seven more people losing their lives, while in Bihar, the toll from lighting strikes mounted to 32. A whopping 12.55 lakh people across 20 districts in Assam have been hit hard by the calamity, a recurring phenomenon every year.
With the fresh deaths, the total number of people losing their lives in this year’s flood-related cases has gone up to 33, including seven in the state’s largest city Guwahati.
In the neighbouring north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, incessant rains for the past three days triggered landslides and flash floods, claiming the life of a 3-year-old girl who was tragically washed away on Sunday.
Major rivers in the state are flowing above the danger level while surface communication was disrupted at many places along the NH-415 that links Assam with Arunachal Pradesh, officials said.
Bihar’s Disaster Management Department Principal Secretary Pratyay Amrit told PTI that the 32 deaths in lightning strikes include four in the state capital Patna. The toll reported on Sunday was 16. The hardest-hit districts of Rohtas and Vaishali have reported five deaths each, he said. The state has been receiving intermittent rain over the past few days.
With several parts of Uttar Pradesh too receiving heavy rains, major rivers including the Ganga have started rising while Ghaghra and Sharda are flowing above the danger mark at some places.
Heavy rains have lashed some parts of the state with Birdghat (Gorakhpur) recording 130.4 mm, Basti 90 mm, Mahrajganj 78.2 mm rainfall on Monday, a Central Water Commission report said.
West Bengal’s Kolkata also received heavy rains, creating waterlogging and disrupting normal life.
The Met Office has predicted that the light to moderate rain or thundershowers will continue in northern and eastern region over next two days.
