Assam Floods: Man With No Formal Training Rescues 2,000 Using Wooden Boat

At least 1.78 lakh people remain affected by floods in Assam, even as a volunteer rescue effort led by a 25-year-old man in Sivasagar district saved nearly 2,000 people from submerged villages last week. The rescue, carried out with a traditional wooden boat, took place as the Dikhow River swelled beyond its banks on July 19.

On the morning of July 19, Shravan Kumar, a resident of Bihubor village, went to the banks of the Dikhow River as he does every monsoon, to collect logs that drift downstream. The logs provide his family with a modest source of income and firewood. That morning, he observed that the river was unusually violent, with large tree trunks being carried with abnormal force. Having grown up beside the river, he sensed danger. By sunrise, his fears were confirmed as floodwater began submerging the region.

His own home was not spared. Water entered the house, and his mother and brother had to move their belongings to higher ground. Instead of returning to help his family, Shravan decided to stay and help his neighbours. "If I had gone back to save my own house, there would have been no one left to save the others," he later said.

Shravan, who studied up to Class 10, has no formal rescue training and no motorised boat. He relied on his knowledge of the river and a traditional wooden boat known locally as the Tulunga Nao. Together with a group of friends, he launched a rescue operation into waters that even experienced boatmen reportedly avoided.

The team worked from 10 am through the night and into the next day, pulling children, elderly residents, pregnant women and patients from submerged homes. Many had taken refuge on rooftops or in ceiling spaces as water rose. "There were people inside the ceiling. We had to pull them out," Shravan recalled. He said navigating in complete darkness was frightening, and the waters carried floating timber that posed a constant risk of capsizing.

By the time the operation ended, Shravan estimated that he and his team had rescued about 2,000 people across five villages. The floods caused widespread devastation in the Nazira Co-District of Sivasagar, submerging villages, washing away roads, and cutting electricity and communication networks, leaving families with no option but to climb onto rooftops.

Meanwhile, the flood situation in Assam showed a slight improvement on Saturday, with the number of affected people dropping to 1.78 lakh. However, the number of districts impacted rose from five to seven, according to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA). No fresh casualties were reported during the past 24 hours, keeping the flood-related death count at 82. The ASDMA said the Dikhow River at Sivasagar and the Dhansiri River at Numaligarh in Golaghat district continued to flow above the danger mark.

The floods have affected 349 villages across Golaghat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Bajali, Dhemaji, Sonitpur and Jorhat districts. Charaideo remains the worst-hit district with 75,199 people affected, followed by Sivasagar where 58,824 people have been impacted, news agency PTI reported. On Friday, around 1.92 lakh people across five districts were affected.

Forty-four relief camps were operational in the state, providing shelter to about 15,000 displaced people. Another 17 relief distribution centres were working, catering to 5,569 people.