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After Assam & West Bengal, floods hit Bhutan

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	Villagers push their cart through flooded fields Monday August 7, 2000 in Flakata, eastern India, near Siliguri. Over 180 people have been killed by storms in the region in the past few days. (AP Photo/Tarun Das)

August 8, 2000 

GAUHATI, India (AP) - After rendering nearly 2.5 million people homeless in India's remote northeast, floods triggered by monsoon rains have hit the neighboring kingdom of Bhutan, killing at least 180 people, officials and news reports said Monday.

The United News of India reported that since Thursday, more than 200 people were feared killed in massive mudslides in Pashaka, a village in Bhutan close to the Indian border. The village was destroyed, the agency quoted Indian officials in the border Jalpaiguri district as saying.

At least 180 bodies had been recovered as of Sunday, UNI said.

The swollen Dhuti Khola River has submerged much of the tiny kingdom's main economic center, the town of Phuntsholing, under water in the past week, the Bhutanese government-owned Kuensel weekly newspaper reported.

"It was like someone up in the sky opened a huge tap and let it run," the newspaper reported.

Women look at passing boats from their flooded home in Seohar, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, Monday August 7, 2000. Large parts of eastern India have been flooded affecting thousands of families. (AP Photo/Vikram Kumar)

Royal Bhutanese soldiers and policemen have been asked to carry food, medicine and tents for hundreds of people left homeless, the Kuensel reported. The telephone links have been snapped between major towns in Bhutan.

The Indian army has sent troops to the flood-hit areas across the border for rescue efforts following a request from the Bhutanese government, UNI said.

On the Indian side, the death toll has risen to 80 in 16 flood-hit districts of Assam state, government officials said. Those hit by the floods were facing a severe shortage of food and medicines.

"We are virtually starving with nothing to eat. Whatever we managed to carry, as we fled our homes on Thursday when flood waters entered our homes, has now finished," said Dhruva Das, a resident of village Borbhag in Nalbari district, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, on Monday.

Hundreds of infants and elderly people have developed symptoms of dysentery and other waterborne diseases in relief camps.

"No government aid has come so far. Scores of children have been suffering from severe diarrhea since Sunday," said Mrigen Kailta, a farmer in Nalbari district.

	Villagers leave Gopalpur village in search of dry land over the flood submerged Sitamarhi-Muzaffarpur road Monday August 7, 2000. Floods in eastern India and in neighboring Bhutan have killed at least 180 people in the past couple of days, and left more than 2.5 million people homeless. (AP Photo/Vikram Kumar)

The state government said it has sent paramedics to flood-hit districts to prevent the outbreak of encephalitis and dysentery.

"We are trying out best to provide relief to the villagers, but I must say it is physically not possible to reach all the effected villages," said Promode Gogoi, the flood control minister of Assam state.

The flood waters have been receding since Sunday night.

"More than 2,500 villagers have been rescued so far by the Air Force helicopters," said S. Madhok, an army commander in Rangiya, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Gauhati, the state capital.