Truemors
Flooding in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Mahanadi continued on wednesday causing 61 breaches in river embankments, leaving behind a trail of devastation submerging hundreds of villages. Lakhs of people were waiting for rescue and relief in the flooded zones. Thousands of people in Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Puri districts took shelter along roadsides and river embankments under temporary polythene roofs depending purely on whatever little food was supplied by the administration. with Intermittent rains have made their shelters inhospitable creating fear of diseases.
The severe floods in the Mahanadi river system have claimed 29 lives and affected more than 37 lakh people till wednesday evening.
The death toll is likely to go up as reports come in from the interiors of the worst-affected districts of Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Puri districts. Food packets were airdropped in some affected zones during the day. shortage of food packets creating a big problem for government .The Sun temple of Konark remained inaccessible for the third day due to the breaches on the roads.
Meanwhile , The Taj Mahal is facing the flood water in Uttar Pradesh, this monument is on the bank of river yamuna. Heavy rain in the upper catchment areas and breach of embankments is creating a challenge for authorities to protect this monument of peace and love.
"At least eight people sustained injuries after two groups of people clashed over distribution of relief," police officer Jitendra Kumar Dalai, who was injured, told Reuters by telephone from flood-hit Jagatsinghpur district.
Authorities said more than 100,000 people are still marooned and six more deaths were reported overnight, raising the death toll from floods in the eastern state to 35 in the past week.
More than 200 people have died in the past five days in India, most of them in northern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the east, with rising rivers bursting their banks and swamping vast areas of farmland and villages, forcing thousands from their homes.
Indian officials said they had posted policemen near the famed Taj Mahal to monitor water levels in the swollen Yamuna river.
Flood waters had reached the outer wall of the Taj compound, but posed no danger to the 17th century mausoleum built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan on very high ground, officials said.
"Since the monument has weathered many a storm over the centuries, I do not think the rise in the Yamuna level or its increasing current could cause any harm to the structure," said K.C. Yadav, a police officer.
The flooding in the Yamuna, which also flows close to New Delhi, was caused by the release of water from two barrages following heavy rains upstream.
The Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of modern world, is already under threat from industrial pollution which is turning its white marble a pale yellow
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