Floods in Assam, India

People return home to hundreds of thousands of rotting cattle carcasses as floodwaters recede in India

Flooding described by India's prime minister as the worst in recent times, has left at least 95 people dead and almost 2 million others homeless in the country's remote Assam state.

Desdemona Despair,

4 July, 2012

The Brahmaputra river overflowed during monsoon rains over the past week, flooding more than 2,000 villages and destroying homes in the northeast of the country, officials said.

Most of the dead were swept away by the fast-flowing water, while 16 were reported to have been buried by landslides caused by the heavy rains.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told journalists Monday that almost half a million people were living in relief camps, and the remaining of the displaced were staying with relatives or living in the open, using tarpaulin sheets for shelter.

Sabir Ali, who lives in one of the affected villages, had to move his family to higher ground with only what they could carry.

"I am stuck. How will I survive? I've been forced to move to railways tracks with my children," he told CNN-IBN.

But water levels have begun to recede, and thousands have returned to damaged homes. A report issued on Tuesday lowered the number of evacuees to 370,000.

Assam's State Disaster Management Authority reported that at least 14 people are missing.

The agency reported that flooding had begun as early as June 24 in some areas and affected all of Assam's 27 districts. It is considered the worst flooding the state has seen since 2004. Assam's river island of Majuli experienced its worst flooding since 1950.

Prime Minister Singh and Sonia Gandhi of India's ruling Congress party flew over the flooded areas to survey the damage. Singh announced that an initial 5 billion rupees (US$90 million) would be given in emergency funds to help with recovery efforts.

"I have witnessed the extensive damage that the floods have caused. The people of Assam are facing one of the worst floods in recent times," Singh said in a prepared statement. […]