Rain across the Garo Hills region over the past two days has led to many parts of the region being severely affected, with many bridges and roads becoming inaccessible. The continued rains have affected all across the region with the districts of South Garo Hills and West Garo Hills being the worst affected in the current deluge.
While it has been raining across the region since the past few days, the situation got worse since late Tuesday.
In SGH, National Highway 62, connecting major sections of the district, was blocked in most places between Siju and Baghmara, leaving residents unable to travel. On the other side, the Ruga timber bridge over the Rompa River, connecting it to Dimapara and onwards to Baghmara was washed away early this morning leaving villagers stranded.
Other rivers also flooded its banks across many other places including Deku while the Simsang River too flowed above danger levels.
In Deku, another wooden bridge that linked it to Chokpot was washed away.
The Deputy Commissioner of SGH, SF Hamid confirmed that district authorities had been pressed into service to oversee the situation.
Authorities further confirmed that at least three families from the Malikona area of Baghmara had to be shifted out of their homes after overnight rains led to land slips and posed direct threats to them.
Rains have inundated many low-lying parts of the Dalu to Baghmara road and travel along the route has become a challenge.
NH-51, which is under construction, saw major landslides due to the rains with many trees also being uprooted. An autorickshaw driver sustained grievous injuries when a tree fell on his vehicle while it was passing through NH-51 at Darengre area of Dobasipara this morning.
“Many autos and vehicles damaged including one auto rickshaw driver injured. Clearing operations are continuing,” said DC Ram Singh of WGH. The DC also visited many of the affected areas.
The plains belt of Garo Hills, including the areas of Phulbari, Chibinang, Tikrikilla, Bhaitbari and Rajabala were relatively unaffected though the areas are still being monitored due to it being flood prone. The area is known for its annual flooding due to the mighty Brahmaputra breaching its banks due to rains in the upper parts of Assam.
Meanwhile other parts of Garo Hills also received major rains and the situation is likely to worsen in the coming days as more bad weather is predicted in the coming days.
