Assam floods: Over 100 dead as Dikhow River surge devastates Sivasagar
Monsoon deluges have killed more than 100 people and displaced 700,000 in Assam, prompting a dispute over whether climate change or upstream mining and deforestation in Nagaland was the primary driver of the disaster.
Monsoon floods in India’s Assam state have claimed the lives of more than 100 people, displacing 700,000 residents and destroying 2,700 villages. The disaster was triggered by heavy rainfall in the neighbouring Naga Hills, which caused the Dikhow River to surge, sweeping away homes and livelihoods in the Sivasagar district. The state government has stated that 1.2 million people were impacted in total, with their daily lives significantly disrupted.
The deluge, which occurred between July 18 and July 20, submerged the eastern Assam region and parts of Nagaland. While monsoon floods typically affect northern and western Assam, the intense rainfall in Nagaland led to dozens of landslides. This runoff swelled rivers originating in the Naga Hills, causing severe devastation downstream in Upper Assam.
Official explanations for the disaster have focused on meteorological factors. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma rejected allegations of illegal mining on August 4, attributing the surge to excessive rainfall in Nagaland. On August 14, cabinet minister Ranoj Pegu cited erratic rainfall due to climate change as the cause of the deluge.
However, residents and experts argue that human activity exacerbated the impact. Biren Gogoi, a local resident, pointed to rampant stone and sand mining in regional rivers, coupled with aggressive deforestation and coal extraction in Nagaland’s Mon district. Global Nature Watch data indicates that Nagaland lost 14 per cent of its tree cover between 2002 and 2025, with Mon district, which borders Sivasagar, being the most affected.
The Forest Survey of India reported that Nagaland lost approximately 794.88 square kilometres of forest cover between 2013 and 2023. An official document from 2022, seen by Al Jazeera, also highlighted mining as a factor in possible large-scale floods downstream on the Assam side. Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, a researcher on the Brahmaputra basin, described the flood as "purely human-made", arguing that unrestrained stone extraction damaged the river’s natural capacity to resist high flows.
Political tensions have emerged over the cause of the disaster. Debabrata Saikia, a legislator from the opposition Congress party, accused the governing Bharatiya Janata Party of allowing illegal excavations on the Dikhow riverbank. He described the situation as a "man-made disaster" engineered by unchecked plundering of riverbeds and hills. In response, Mon’s Deputy Commissioner Wennyei Konyak acknowledged the possibility of illegal mining but stated that government interference was limited to uphold the rights of Indigenous tribes, attributing the flood to the "wrath of nature".
