Weather
Assam flood toll crosses 100, over 7 lakh displaced as damage widens
More than 100 people have been killed and 700,000 displaced in Assam’s floods, with 1.2 million impacted overall as questions grow over the role of mining alongside heavy rainfall.
Assam’s flood toll has crossed 100 deaths, with over 700,000 people displaced and 1.2 million impacted overall as the scale of the damage keeps widening.
About 2,700 villages have been destroyed, with Sivasagar district in upper Assam among the worst-hit areas, along with Mon district across the border in Nagaland.
The flooding followed heavy rainfall in the Naga Hills between July 18 and 20, which triggered sudden surges in tributaries flowing into Assam’s lowlands.
A local vlogger described the scale of destruction, saying trees as tall as 30 to 40 metres came crashing down from the hills, leaving no homes standing, and calling it “a tsunami.”
Government officials have blamed excessive rainfall and climate change for the disaster, while opposition legislators and researchers argue that unregulated riverbed mining has played a direct role in worsening it.
Among the tragic stories to emerge is one involving two friends of different faiths who died together, after a Hindu man drowned trying to save a Muslim woman caught in the floodwaters.
The Brahmaputra river’s heavy sediment load steadily weakens embankments over time, and nearly 40 percent of Assam’s total land area is considered vulnerable to flooding in a typical monsoon season.
Assam floods almost every year during the monsoon, but this year’s disaster was unusual in that floodwaters from cloudburst-driven tributary surges arrived before the Brahmaputra itself reached peak levels, catching low-lying areas off guard.
The worst-hit districts include Sivasagar, Charaideo, Jorhat and Golaghat in upper Assam, along with Mon district across the border in neighbouring Nagaland.
Researchers point to unrestrained stone mining along riverbeds such as the Dikhow as a contributing factor, arguing it has stripped away the natural cushioning that once absorbed flood surges.
Deforestation data shows Nagaland lost 14 percent of its tree cover between 2002 and 2025, with Mon district among the worst affected, a factor experts say has worsened runoff into Assam’s rivers.
Photo by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0