GUWAHATI: On Monday, Amal Das called up his friend Prabal in Kolkata to inform him that he was standing in ankle-deep floodwaters. Amal was talking from his first floor home in Silchar town, now entirely submerged.
Like him, thousands others are stranded as the raging river Barak has submerged not just this entire town in southern Assam's Cachar district but the whole river valley.
Silchar is incommunicado and without transport as 5-12 feet waves lash the streets. Locals say this is unprecedented.
Pregnant women and children are the worst sufferers. The town takes pride in producing hundreds of techies -- many of them settled abroad.
As Silchar is now in the throes of an acute shortage of essentials, the state government began air-dropping food packets, bottles of drinking water and other essentials.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who conducted an aerial survey of the district, of which Silchar is the headquarters, said the state government would continue with such air-droppings for the marooned in the coming days, apart from regular relief.
"Our government is firmly with the people of Barak Valley," Sarma, who also reviewed the situation with senior officials of the district administration, said.
Silchar is without power and water supply. Hand pumps, wells, borewells, shops and commercial establishments are all inundated. Batteries of mobile phones have drained out and there is no Internet.
Assam's Transport Minister Parimal Suklabaidya, who was rushed to the district by the CM, told The New Indian Express on Thursday the entire Silchar town was submerged.
"I am at chest-deep water now. Some 4,000 transformers in the district are under water. The flood has made life hell. The administration is providing relief," he said.
Mrinmoy Kashyap Sinha, who is a socio-political activist from the Barak Valley, said patients and pregnant women were the worst sufferers. He said people were suffering due to lack of food and drinking water.
Many affected people are holed up on the terrace and rooftop of their houses, he said.
The valley derived its name from river Barak which flows through Silchar. Betukandi is a low-lying area on the riverbank and there are some settlements. Some elements here had breached an embankment and it changed the course of the swelling river after the flood arrived, making Silchar a flood channel, official sources said.
Prosenjit Chowdhury, who is a retired bank manager, said, "We have had floods before but we haven't heard of such a devastating flood in the valley. I am virtually staying on an island now."
Chowdhury is from the adjoining Hailakandi district. The valley is made up of three districts where the Bengalis are in a large majority. Karimganj – the third district – has also been ravaged.
Till Wednesday, 100 people died in the rain-induced floods and landslides in Assam. Over 54.57 lakh others were affected in 32 of the state's 35 districts.
The number of people affected in Cachar was 2,32,002. It was 51,399 and 2,81,271 in Hailakandi and Karimganj respectively.