E-Paper
Manipur flash floods: Major rivers flow above danger level
Manipur has witnessed flash floods and landslides in the past one week. Many low-lying areas have been submerged. There are also reports of landslides in hill districts.
IMPHAL: The flash flood situation in Manipur continues to be alarming as the water level in almost all the major rivers are flowing above the danger mark on Thursday after incessant rain for the past eight days.
Many low-lying areas in the valley areas continue to be submerged while there are reports of landslides in hill districts.
This year monsoon has advanced in Manipur. The rainfall from January this year is in excess of normal rain till May 18 except March, an official of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Manipur Centre said on Thursday.
The northeastern state received 30.4mm of rainfall in January against the normal rainfall of 12.8, according to the official rainfall data of ICAR which was made available to media here on Thursday. Similarly, it received 47.9mm of rainfall in February against the normal rainfall of 38.8. April received 141mm against the normal rainfall of 122.9mm.
But, only 57mm rainfall against the normal rainfall of 76mm was recorded in March while a total of 318.1mm of rainfall against normal rainfall of 173.6mm in May was recorded till May 18.
“It has exceeded double the normal May rainfall,” the official who has been analysing the weather data of ICAR said.
In 2017, Manipur’s capital Imphal received the highest rainfall since 1956, recording 2,439.4mm till December 13 or 68.71% above the state’s annual precipitation of 1446.3mm, the ICAR Imphal centre said.
In that particular year, the highest rainfall was recorded on March 31 (103.4mm) and highest monthly record in December with 116.3mm of rain till December 13.
In the past one week, Manipur has witnessed flash floods and landslides, many localities in the state capital have been inundated due to incessant rainfall in the northeastern border state. On Sunday, the sudden rise of water level of Jiri River washed away four houses besides submerging many houses in Jiribam district, which borders Assam’s Silchar district.
Earlier, due to the sudden rise of the Barak River water level, a large number of settling areas and agricultural fields in Tamenglong district were also submerged. Last week, the Imphal-Jiribam sector of National Highway 37, the second life line of the state, was cut off after a bailey bridge over Irang River was collapsed while the Manipur-Mizoram route was also cut off after the newly built diversion road was washed away by rain on May 11.
