in years. At least 97 people have died in the floods in Assam that have affected nearly 170,000, including thousands who have been forced into temporary shelters as swollen rivers inundate homes and farmland. Floodwaters have submerged more than 14,000 hectares of cropland, an area almost one-and-a-half times the size of Paris.

An AFP journalist saw half-submerged houses, uprooted trees and vehicles buried under mud across the worst-hit district of Sivasagar. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted a video on Friday of him consoling the parents of a 13-year-old boy who died while trying to rescue his pet dog from floodwaters. "No parent should ever have to bid farewell to their child", he wrote.

India's Health Minister J.P. Nadda, who visited the flood-hit region on Thursday, said the scale of the devastation was "so huge that it will take time" for normality to be restored. "Village after village has been submerged", he told reporters. Like most of the subcontinent, flooding is common in Assam during the June-September monsoon as the Brahmaputra -- India's biggest river -- and its many tributaries overflow. However, experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing the frequency, severity and impact of the disasters. Residents and officials have blamed illegal coal mining in the neighbouring state of Nagaland for worsening the flooding, saying it has affected areas not historically prone to inundation. Sarma has said he would raise the issue with the national government in New Delhi. Advocacy group Climate Trends said the increasing severity of floods in the state was "driven by the interaction of global warming, changing river dynamics and growing human exposure, making them more frequent, more complex and more costly". (Bssnews)