Guwahati:
Assam's flood scene has worsened with at least 10 more people washed away, as many feared drowned and thousands rendered homeless across the state, where world's biggest inhabited river island Majuli is facing threat of complete submergence.
Officials said 10 people were washed away in Sonitpur and Jorhat districts today and to take the toll to 20 in the floods that have affected 23 of the total 27 districts in the state following incessant rains during the past few weeks.
The state government said all districts barring the hill districts of Karbi Anglong, North Cachar Hills, Kokrajhar and Buxa have been affected.
A 70-member National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team is on way from Kolkata to the island, which house several Vaishnavite monasteries, to help thousands of people stranded there following submergence of 70 villages and complete washing away of 30 others.
Road and rail communication to Barak Valley in south Assam and neighbouring states of Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura were cut off following landslides in Dima Hasao hill district and Meghalaya, the sources said.
In Lakhimpur, over two lakh people have been hit by flood in Brahmaputra and Subansiri rivers while in neighbouring Dhemaji, over 2.5 lakh people have been affected.
Sources said flood waters have engulfed the entire Kaziranga National Park and animals are crossing NH 37, which passes through the park, to higher grounds in Karbi Anglong hills.
The Golaghat district administration said two deer and a wild boar were knocked down on the highway by vehicles and killed this morning. Section 144 CrPC has been imposed on the highway near the park and time tags issued to all vehicles to prevent poaching.
In Kolkata, the IAF said that one of its helicopters flew a mercy mission in Assam to rescue eight people, including three pregnant women from a boat in Dibong river near the Mohanbari airbase.
The crew navigated to the boat stranded on a sandy mound with the pilot lowering the helicopter wheels to just touch the soft ground with consummate skill, a defence release said.
"Since it involved three pregnant women, winching them up as an option was totally ruled out," the release said quoting Wg Cdr Rosha.
In another casualty evacuation mission from Haflong in North Cachar Hills, a woman with severe head injuries was flown to Guwahati late in the evening by an IAF Mi-17 helicopter, the release said.
The two Mi-17 units based in Mohanbari - 127 and 128 HU - have been on standby for such mercy missions and have undertaken several relief missions since Tuesday.
IAF's Eastern Air Command launched four AN-32 tactical transport aircraft from the Jorhat airbase to Kolkata to airlift 140 NDRF personnel and 14 tonne of relief material to Guwahati and Jorhat, respectively, for flood relief, it said.