For weeks, an Assam district stared at drought. Then it got hit by floods

June had come and gone. It was almost the end of July. But Babul Bora of eastern Assam’s Golaghat district was still waiting for rains to sow paddy.

This was unusual. Monsoon typically arrives in Assam in the first week of June. Between mid-June and mid-July, farmers across the region get busy in sowing and transplanting paddy.

“Khorang asile,” Bora told Scroll. “There was a drought.” The 56-year old cultivator from Balidowa village in Pachim Brahmaputra panchayat saw cracks appear in his fields.

Many other villages in Golaghat recorded such conditions. According to reports by district authorities, three of Golaghat’s six revenue circles faced “drought-like” conditions as of July 14.

Four days later, disaster struck.

On July 19, heavy rain caused the Gelabil river near Bora’s village to swell up, submerging homes and farmlands.

In the week between July 16 and 22, Golaghat received 147% more rain than usual, data from the India Meteorological Department shows.

Golaghat became one of the four worst-hit flood districts in Assam. Over 100 people have lost their lives and around seven lakh people displaced across the state in devastating floods. The waters have wreaked havoc in Upper Assam, areas which have rarely seen such intense floods in the past.

“The floodwater killed us,” said Bora. The water has not receded from his...

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