after the heat wave the deluge. Flash floods, triggered by torrential rains over the past two weeks, have rendered at least four lakh people homeless in Assam. This at a time when several states in the country have not yet recovered from a severe dry spell. The monsoon which arrived in the northeast on June 8, 2003, resulted in Brahmaputra river and several of its tributaries overflowing their banks.

The flood destroyed homes in around 300 villages of Assam, submerging roads, bridges and rail tracks in its wake. Eight districts were hit by the first wave, of which four