The Unimaginable Devastation of Floods in Assam

The Unimaginable Devastation of Floods in Assam

ANJAN SARMA

At dawn, the water was a mere six inches. By 10:00 AM, it had surged to four feet.

On the morning of July 20th, this was the terrifying reality for Naren Barua of Sivasagar and his neighbors. The water did not rise slowly, nor was there any prior warning. They had absolutely no time to move the elderly to safety, rescue their livestock, or save the harvested paddy stored in their granaries. By 10:00 AM, the villagers were forced to swim toward the highway just to survive.

One woman perched on a tree branch with her son, while another helpless woman sat stranded atop an iron gate! In the village of Abhaypuriya in Demow, the fierce flood currents swept four members of a single family to their deaths – mother Tutumoni Duwarah, her daughter Bidisha Duwarah, and her two sons, Bidyut and Biplab Duwarah. How absolutely heartbreaking! Many people are still missing, and countless others have met an untimely end.

As children of Assam, we have witnessed the ravages of floods many times in our lives, enduring an endless cycle of human tears and political apathy. However, the horrifying situation that has unfolded in Upper Assam this July is no ordinary monsoon flood for us. This is a catastrophic deluge, and in these dire circumstances, Assam desperately requires the immediate and undivided attention of the Indian Government. Assam no longer needs aerial surveys; it demands a permanent solution.

Undeclared Havoc in Upper Assam:

Within a mere 48 hours, what began as a localized flash flood escalated into a state of emergency, expanding across 16 of Assam’s 35 districts. The sheer speed of this devastation was so rapid that it caught everyone entirely off guard – from the local administration to the most experienced riverbank dwellers.

The Wrath of Nature : Floods of Assam

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The official data from the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) is alarming, but the reality on the ground is even more tragic. Over 5.64 lakh people have been affected, 872 villages across 44 revenue circles are completely submerged, and as of July 22, at least 31 people have lost their lives – 21 of whom died within a single, heartbreaking 24-hour window.

Here is a brief snapshot of the devastation unfolding across the vast expanse of Upper Assam:

Sivasagar District: Sivasagar district is the primary epicenter of the disaster. In this district alone, more than 3.59 lakh people have been affected, and 13 people have died in a single day. The Dikhou river, a tributary of the mighty Brahmaputra, has not only breached its danger mark but has also shattered its highest recorded flood level in history. Sipahi Gaon, Jolagaon, Jayanagar, Gadadhar Nagar, Salaguri, Kalugaon, Sundarpur, Betbari, Nimaijan, Bhadhara, Dagaon, Konwar Gaon, Chengelibari, Betonibam, Duwari Gaon… village after village now lies entirely underwater!

Jorhat District: The lives of over 87,000 people have been endangered. Meanwhile, the Dhansiri and Burhidihing rivers are flowing above the danger level. A staggering 162 villages remain underwater. Submerged are Sonari Gaon, Dichoikosh, Rojotiya, Khutiapota, Tekela Gaon, Rongdoi Habi Gaon, Rajahauli, Pohumara, Khongiya, Nohotiya, Kuhum Jogoniya, Duboroni Pathar, Sarucharai, Parbatia, Maloukhat, Maloupam, Senchoa Gayan Gaon, Goria Gaon, Sarumainapariya, Bam Kukurachowa, Barjya Gaon, Cinnamara Tea Estate, Bam Dhekiakhowa, Borigaon, Seleng, Dhuliya, Thengalbari, Hatimuria, Senchoa, Naoboicha, Boloma Pathar, Mudaijan, Bhorolua, Pirakata, Arandhara, Lonpuriya, Letekujan, Borholla Grant, Ikarani, Bosa Gaon, Bamun Gaon, Kuwori Chuk, Dafalating, Thengal Gaon, Rongdoi, Gotonga, Jakaichuk, Derghariya… how many names of villages can one write! Everything is underwater.

Charaideo District: Over 72,000 people have been left homeless. The NDRF and SDRF have had to rescue nearly 7,000 stranded individuals from rooftops and submerged highways, moving them to safety.

Currently, 12,284 displaced and destitute people are crowded into 71 relief camps, while 202 relief distribution centers are struggling to cope with the sheer scale of human suffering.

Shattered Transportation and Economy: This deluge has completely crippled the transportation network of the entire Northeast. The primary arterial national highway connecting Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, and Tinsukia was submerged near Teok on the night of July 20th. This has not only stranded commuters but has also completely severed the supply of essential commodities and fuel to the heartland of India’s tea and oil industries. Trucks, buses, and emergency service vehicles are stranded for kilometers on end.

Simultaneously, the Northeast Frontier Railway has been forced to cancel all train operations on the Simaluguri branch. Railway tracks and station premises have entirely vanished beneath the floodwaters.

When national highways are severed and railway operations come to a halt within the same 48-hour window, it not only leaves people stranded but also deprives the flood-affected victims of relief materials, medical care, and the essential supplies needed for rescue operations. To conduct rescue missions in these completely cut-off regions, the Indian Army has had to launch ‘Operation Jal Rahat’.

The Deadly Face of Climate Change: New Delhi must realize that we are no longer fighting the floods of the eighties. Following intense rainfall, torrential waters cascading down the bald hills of Nagaland’s Mon district – stripped bare by kilometers of deforestation – combined with heavy downpours in Sivasagar, Jorhat, and Charaideo districts, have triggered an unprecedented mega-deluge this time!

The water levels of Brahmaputra’s tributaries like the Disang, Dikhou, Jhanji, Darika, Saffrai, and Bhogdoi rose abnormally and dangerously, submerging thousands of villages, roads, bridges, offices, educational institutions, and numerous tea estates in just a matter of hours.

Some experts have already begun expressing their views, pointing out that this catastrophe is the direct result of the ecological degradation that has taken place in Nagaland in recent times. In the past few years, 795 square kilometers of forest have been destroyed in Nagaland! Hill after hill has been laid bare, resulting in the complete loss of the water-retaining capacity of Nagaland’s hills!

Rivers like the Dikhou, Disang, and Dhansiri stream down from the hills. They do not swell gradually with the changing seasons. Driven by sudden, heavy rainfall, these rivers transform from a calm state into a terrifying deluge within just a few hours. This is the cruel reality of climate change.

The Impact of Climate Change: Climate change has acted as an accelerator in this entire process. Global warming, driven by the use of fossil fuels, has intensified the pace of the Earth’s hydrological cycle.

Droughts in Arid Regions: Accelerated evaporation in dry regions is causing the soil to become even more parched.

Havoc of Floods in Humid Regions: This excessive evaporation has abnormally increased cloud density in rain-prone and mountainous areas. The direct consequences of this are unprecedented flash floods, severe landslides, and extensive damage to mountain ecosystems.

Crumbling Embankments in a Changed Reality: To understand why floods occur so frequently in Assam, we must look at our riverbeds and our failing infrastructure.

The Brahmaputra carries an unimaginable volume of silt from the Himalayas. As this silt accumulates, the riverbed continuously rises, leading to a severe lack of space to hold water. To combat this, Assam relies primarily on 423 embankments built largely in the 1950s.

It is abundantly clear that these earthen embankments were constructed for a river and a climate that no longer exist in today’s world, nor in Assam. This July, when the waters of the Dikhou and Disang rivers surged past their maximum recorded levels, these aging structures could not withstand the immense pressure. Breaches in embankments have been reported across various locations. The most tragic reality is that when an embankment fails, it unleashes a flood far more devastating than the one it was meant to hold back, slowly pushing the very people who built their homes behind it – believing they were safe – into the jaws of death and unimaginable agony.

Between 2016 and 2026, floods have destroyed approximately 57.57 lakh bighas of our agricultural land, and river erosion has swallowed about 2.31 lakh bighas. Within this same decade, over 1,400 people have lost their lives in Assam due to weather-related disasters.

The World Inequality Lab’s Climate Inequality Report 2025 makes it glaringly clear that the world’s top one percent of wealthy individuals are responsible for 41 percent of emissions linked to personal investments. Yet, the steepest physical and economic price for this is being paid by our ordinary, innocent people! This is the true meaning of climate inequality. Stranded on the banks of an international river flowing through multiple nations, we are being forced to pay the ultimate price for the pollution generated by wealthy nations.

Ignoring Our Indigenous Knowledge and Technology: For generations, our indigenous communities – such as the Mising and Deori peoples – have known exactly how to survive and thrive against the backdrop of Assam’s flood conditions.

Their ‘Chang Ghars’ (stilt houses) are not merely a cultural heritage; rather, they are a flawless, pragmatic engineering solution designed to keep families and food secure above standard flood levels. Long before the era of artificial satellites, these tribes could accurately predict the intensity of floods by closely observing upstream silt deposits and natural biological indicators.

Today, our government relies on satellite systems, which theoretically provide 36 to 48 hours of advance warning. But what is the value of a satellite warning if it fails to reach a remote village in time? The water rose from ankle-deep to four feet in a single morning. We must formally integrate this indigenous ecological knowledge into our state disaster management protocols. This is not merely local folklore; it is life-saving information.

Our Clear Demand to New Delhi

Since 2016, the lion’s share of the ₹3,793.60 crore allocated to the State Disaster Response Fund and the ₹948.40 crore to the Mitigation Fund has been spent solely on post-disaster compensation and clean-up operations.

The Government of India must immediately take the following steps:

Geophysical Audits: A comprehensive and urgent risk assessment of all 423 embankments in Assam must be conducted. The structures that have failed under the 2026 conditions must be decommissioned, and the people in those areas must be relocated to safer grounds.

Last-Mile Early Warning Systems: The gap between centralized satellite forecasts and district-level villages with poor connectivity must be bridged.

International Climate Funds: Under the Paris Agreement and the Green Climate Fund, India must actively mobilize international climate adaptation funds, which should be used to make Assam’s infrastructure climate-resilient rather than just compensating for damages.

Flood-Resilient Agriculture: Assam must invest heavily in developing indigenous flood-resistant and deep-water paddy varieties of the Eastern Himalayas, ensuring that every flood season does not turn into a severe food crisis.

When the Waters Recede…

One day, the waters will recede from Naren Barua’s village. The national highways will reopen, and train wheels will turn again on the Simaluguri branch. The 12,284 people taking shelter in relief camps will return to their broken homes, spending months upon months repairing them.

But the 31 people who lost their lives on July 21st will never return.

The brewing of the next cloudburst over the hills of Nagaland might already be underway. Whether Assam will face floods again is no longer the question. Our question to the Indian Government is this: After how many frequent, escalating disasters will you realize the necessity of permanent and structural investments, instead of repeatedly sending rescue boats?

Will you continue merely applying a band-aid to our wounds, or will you finally help build Assam into a secure state, refusing to let it drown?

Translated from original Assamese to English by Pahari Baruah

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