- More than 100 people have died in the floods in Assam and Nagaland.
- The floods and landslides have swept away homes and livestock, and left people without access to proper food, water, healthcare and shelter.
- Apart from heavy rainfall, researchers and local residents point to wetland degradation, disrupted drainage and unregulated mining and infrastructure as factors that have made the connected Brahmaputra basin more vulnerable to flooding.
It was midnight in India on July 19, when football fans all over the world were gearing up to watch the World Cup finals. Around the same time, the people of the village Nepalikhuti climbed up on their rooftops and buildings as water was gushing in to their homes. Nepalikhuti, a village in Sivasagar district of Assam, along with some of the nearby villages were among the worst affected during the recent floods in the state.
About 60-65 families in Nepalikhuti also took refuge in a two-storeyed building as their homes were swept away, shares social worker Shubhrajit Das, who visited Nepalikhuti for relief work.
About 1.5 kilometres from Nepalikhuti, in the Santak Panchali locality, Sourav Choudhury talks about his experience of July 19. “The water entered our village at around 1 pm and within twenty minutes, it reached our chest. My family, along with 40 other families, had to take shelter in the two-storeyed building of the lower primary school in our village,” he told Mongabay-India. “In Nepalikhuti, the devastation is huge as around ten people died there. The death toll might increase as many bodies might be stuck in the mud. Also, around 5000 cows have been swept away. They were the main source of livelihood for the people there.”
The death toll from the Assam floods has reached 100 as of August 10.
As per the August 9 flood bulletin released by Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), ten districts and 28 revenue circles were affected. Out of the 456 affected villages, 145 are from Golaghat and 110 are from Sivasagar, the two most-affected districts.
The flood affected thousands of people, directly and indirectly. Currently, as per the August 9 bulletin, 52 relief camps are operational in the state where more than 8,000 people are staying. An area of around 119,000 hectares of cropland has been submerged in the floods.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a statement that the flood was caused by heavy rainfall and a cloudburst in Nagaland, though the India Meteorological Department (IMD) ruled out reports of cloudburst, indicating that there may be more factors beyond heavy rainfall, that caused the floods.
Unprecedented floods, say residents
Ashok Kotoky, a resident of Betbari village in Sivasagar district witnessed the impact of the floods in real time. He told Mongabay-India, “Around 7.30 in the evening on July 19, everything was submerged. Water from Dikhow river fell in Dorika river which flooded Betbari. 99% of the houses were affected here. People who lived near the embankment were somewhat spared. I have never seen flood like this in my lifetime.” Many people in his village are currently staying at the Mithapukhuri Lower Primary School, where Kotoky is a teacher. “Even though the water has receded, people can’t go back to their homes because of knee deep mud and silt there,” he said.
Gyanashree Bora, a political candidate from Rajjor Dal party, who contested in this year’s Assembly polls from Mariani constituency in Jorhat district, described this flood as the “worst in a lifetime”. Talking about the village of Selengahat, which is in Mariani, Bora said, “There are 63 households that have lost all their belongings. This flood didn’t give anybody time to prepare. When water reached their courtyard, people were not very alarmed. But within 15 minutes, it reached the chest. There was nowhere to escape.” She said that the government aid and relief reached the people almost after three days while aid from private individuals, NGOs and various parties and organisations reached before government relief.
Tirtha Prasad Saikia, Director of North-East Affected Area Development Society (NEADS), a Jorhat-based humanitarian and development organisation said multidisciplinary field teams were immediately deployed to conduct Rapid Needs Assessments (RNA) in remote and inaccessible villages to identify the most urgent humanitarian needs. “The assessments identified severe shortages of safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, food, emergency shelter, healthcare, household essentials and livelihood support,” Saikia told Mongabay-India. He said since then, NEADS has been distributing emergency food supplies, hygiene and dignity kits for women and girls, temporary shelter materials and other essential relief items to vulnerable families and his organisation has reached 20,000 affected families so far.
The floods were so powerful that a captive elephant was swept away from Mon district in Nagaland and found across the border in Assam in Bihubor, Sivasagar. Chiranjeev P. Jain, Divisional Forest Officer, Sivasagar, said the elephant had suffered injuries that appeared superficial, but its medical examination report was awaited as officials studied its documents to decide its future. Snakebites and insect bites were another concern. Dr. Surajit Giri, an anaesthesiologist at Demow Model Hospital who specialises in treating such cases, said he treated 10-15 patients over the phone when people could not reach hospitals during the floods. Two patients bitten by banded kraits were evacuated with help from the National Disaster Response Force and received timely treatment. Since the waters receded, however, the hospital has received around 150 patients with insect bites which have increased because of the mud and dirt everywhere.
Meanwhile, in a live statement on Facebook, CM Sarma announced interim relief of ₹15,000 to affected families to be distributed from August 3. “Additional ₹10,000 will be paid to each affected family in Sivasagar and Charaideo on August 10. Also electricity bill up to 300 units for month of July has been waived off in Charaideo and Sivasagar. Also insurance companies will admit claims based on minimal documentation,” said Sarma on the social media platform.
Impacts across state borders
Nagaland, a northeastern state bordering Assam, was also severely affected from the flood and landslide with 13 people dead.
On July 19, heavy upstream rain in Mon, Mokokchung and Wokha areas of Nagaland caused south-bank tributaries like Dikhow, Disang and Dhansiri to swell and flooded Assam. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio did an aerial survey of of some of the affected areas and the Nagaland government announced an interim ex gratia of ₹400,000 to the family of the deceased while ₹74,000 for the injured.
Kaibo Konyak, a resident of Mon town and Media Secretary, Konyak Students Union (KSU) which is helping with relief and rehabilitation work, told Mongabay-India, “During July 19 and 20, there was very heavy rainfall which caused massive landslide and mudslide in Mon, disconnecting road and disrupting electricity. People here have lost everything, from savings to livelihood.”
Factors beyond rainfall
Naginimora, a sub-divisional town is one of the worst affected areas in Mon district of Nagaland. Nyamok Konyak, Extra Assistant Commissioner (EAC), Naginimora told Mongabay-India, “The main devastation we faced was from flash flood, along with the flooding of the Dikhu river on the side of the Naginimora town. We provided immediate ration to 250 displaced households.”
Naginimora is also a border town, less than 10 km from Bihubor in Assam’s Sivasagar district. The area is known for coal mining.
Debabrata Saikia, member of the Assam Legislative Assembly and a leader in the Indian National Congress party, called the floods a “meticulously engineered man-made disaster”, blaming unchecked sand, stone and coal mining. He said illegal open-cast coal mining in Nagaland leaves pits unfilled, creating artificial ponds, while illegal sand and stone mining along the Dikhow river has worsened the situation. Saikia said he had filed a PIL in the Gauhati High Court in 2019 over illegal mining on the riverbanks, but the state government was yet to form a task force ordered by the court. Nyamok Konyak, EAC, Naginimora, however, disputed the link between mining and the floods, saying torrential rain across Mon district and upstream water caused the flooding, while the town and mines were in low-lying areas.
Meanwhile, discussing the causes of the flood, Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, researcher on the Brahmaputra river basin told Mongabay-India, “The floods in Assam during recent years have maintained a distinct pattern and character, it is only the geographical location changes. Rampant and consistent wetland degradation and infrastructure projects have been hampering the natural drainage flow of many tributaries of the Brahmaputra, both on the northern and the southern banks. People who gave their land for infrastructure projects in lieu of compensation are now getting affected, because they were not involved in the planning of such projects and what would it imply for them in the future. In the name of economic connectivity in which these infrastructure projects such as highways were constructed, the ecological connectivity got disrupted heavily.”
He pointed out that unscientific and unregulated mining was happening in both Nagaland and Assam. “This disaster is a culmination of everything, and had not occurred overnight,” he said, suggesting systematic studies of Brahmaputra flood plains, a bio-regional governance framework and a need to look at the larger ecology of the connected basin.”
Banner image: Flood affected villagers wait to cross the flooded roads in Sivsager, Assam on July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Parikhit Saikia)
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