Nagaland has become central to the debate over the unprecedented floods in Upper Assam that has at least killed 21 people, with heavy upstream rainfall, differing assessments over a reported cloudburst and questions over Assam-Nagaland disaster coordination.
The focus shifted to Nagaland after heavy rainfall caused the Dikhow and Desang rivers, both originating in the Naga Hills, to swell rapidly and inundate large parts of Sivasagar, Jorhat and Charaideo districts.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the flood situation in the three districts deteriorated following an upstream cloudburst in Nagaland, resulting in water levels unseen in more than 50 years.
However, Nalinish Kumar Choudhary, Head of the India Meteorological Department’s Meteorological Centre in Kohima, offered a different assessment. He said Mon district recorded 137 mm of rainfall on July 20, while Mon, Mokokchung and several other districts had been receiving continuous rainfall due to an upper cyclonic circulation over the past few days.
The sustained rainfall, he said, could have contributed to flooding in the low-lying areas of Assam. At the same time, he noted that the recorded rainfall did not suggest a cloudburst.
The flood has also reignited discussion over disaster coordination between the neighbouring states.
After visiting flood-hit areas in Teok and parts of Jorhat, Assam Congress president and Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi questioned whether adequate information had been shared between Assam and neighbouring states following reports of an upstream cloudburst.
“Natural disasters do not recognise state boundaries. There has to be regular coordination and exchange of information between neighbouring states. Such mechanisms become even more important when extreme weather events occur upstream,” he said.
Gogoi claimed the Assam government did not receive advance information about the reported upstream cloudburst in Nagaland.
“We have learnt from several sources that the Assam government did not receive any advance information from the Nagaland government regarding the cloudburst.
If that is true, it points to a serious lack of coordination among neighbouring northeastern states,” he said.
Chief Minister Sarma, however, rejected suggestions that a lack of coordination between Assam and Nagaland had worsened the disaster.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to flood-hit Charaideo on Wednesday, Sarma said the Nagaland government had informed Assam’s Chief Secretary within 10 minutes of the reported cloudburst in Mon district.
“The Nagaland government informed the Chief Secretary of Assam within 10 minutes of the cloudburst in Nagaland’s Mon district, but what is the value of that? We had barely an hour and a half, and by then the water had already started flowing downstream,” he said.
Sarma maintained that the flooding witnessed in Upper Assam was fundamentally different from the state’s annual monsoon floods.
“This is not a regular or common flood situation. Due to the cloudburst in Nagaland’s Mon district, a huge volume of water suddenly started flowing into Assam,” he said.
Separately, Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi alleged that hill cutting, mining and infrastructure development in Nagaland had aggravated flooding downstream. There was no immediate response from the Nagaland government to the allegation.
While the debate over the causes and response continues, the impact of the floods has been severe on both sides of the border.
According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), more than 5.64 lakh people have been affected across 16 districts, while over 10,000 have been evacuated. The Army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have rescued hundreds of people as floodwaters submerged vast areas of Upper Assam.
In Nagaland, nine people were killed in landslides in Mon district, where continuous heavy rainfall also damaged roads and disrupted connectivity.
(With inputs from The Assam Tribune and Deccan Herald)