News in Frames | The wounds beneath Assam’s deadly flood
Floods across Upper Assam in 2026 have killed 98 people, with the highest tolls recorded in Sivasagar, Charaideo, and Jorhat districts.
Mining, quarrying, deforestation and jhum (shifting) cultivation on hill slopes have been identified as anthropogenic factors that may have destabilised slopes and intensified the deluge's impact.
The state administration has called for science-backed interventions to identify vulnerable slopes and address the underlying causes of the disaster.
Relief and rescue operations remain active across the affected districts amid the ongoing monsoon season.
Jhum (Shifting) Cultivation
Jhum, or shifting cultivation, is a traditional slash-and-burn farming system practised in the hilly tracts of Northeast India, in which forest patches are cleared and cultivated for a few years before being left fallow to regenerate. Historically sustainable at low population densities, shortened fallow cycles under population pressure now prevent soil and vegetation recovery, accelerating slope erosion and destabilisation.
Key Details
- Governed by successive policy interventions including the Jhum Land Regulation (1948), the National Forest Policy (1988), and Mizoram's New Land Use Policy (2011), all aimed at replacing jhum with settled or plantation-based agriculture.
- Some states (e.g., Meghalaya, from 2006) have shifted approach from suppression toward integrating soil and water conservation measures within jhum practice rather than eliminating it outright.
- Reduced fallow periods (once 15-20 years, now often 2-5 years in parts of the Northeast) are the key driver of degraded regeneration and increased runoff.
Jhum cultivation on the hill slopes feeding Upper Assam's river systems is cited as one of the anthropogenic factors, alongside mining and deforestation, that reduced vegetative cover and increased slope instability ahead of the 2026 floods.
Sand and Stone Mining Regulation
Riverbed and hill-slope mining for sand and stone, when unregulated, deepens channels, removes natural buffers, and increases downstream flood severity. India regulates this activity through central guidelines issued under environmental and mining law.
Key Details
- The Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines (2016) and the Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining (2020), issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, cap extraction at the river's annual replenishment rate and mandate no-mining zones in ecologically sensitive stretches.
- Minor minerals such as sand and stone fall under state jurisdiction via the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, with states framing their own mineral concession rules.
- A "river-to-consumer" IT-based monitoring system with barcoded transport permits was introduced to curb illegal extraction (the so-called "sand mafia").
Unregulated mining and quarrying in the hills and riverbeds feeding Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat is flagged as a contributing factor to the 2026 flood's severity, illustrating the gap between guideline provisions and on-ground enforcement.
Disaster Management Act, 2005 — Institutional Response Framework
The Disaster Management Act, 2005 created a three-tier institutional structure for disaster response in India, under which floods such as those in Assam are managed.
Key Details
- Establishes the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), chaired by the Prime Minister, at the apex; State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs), chaired by Chief Ministers; and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs), chaired by District Collectors/Deputy Commissioners.
- The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), a specialised force under the Act's framework, has been deployed in past major flood events including Kerala (2018-19) and Chennai (2015).
- The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in December 2024 and the Rajya Sabha in March 2025, recognising risks from extreme climate events and mandating national and state disaster databases.
The NDMA-SDMA-DDMA structure governs the coordination of relief operations across Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat, with the 2025 amendment's recognition of extreme climate events directly relevant to attributing flood severity to compounding factors like deforestation and mining.
Brahmaputra River System and Upper Assam Geomorphology
The Brahmaputra and its Upper Assam tributaries form a highly braided, sediment-heavy river system originating in the Eastern Himalayas, making the region inherently flood-prone even before anthropogenic factors are considered.
Key Details
- Assam falls in Seismic Zone V (highest hazard zone) under the Bureau of Indian Standards' seismic zoning map, and slope instability from earthquakes compounds monsoon-driven erosion.
- High sediment loads from Himalayan catchments cause frequent channel migration and bank erosion, a defining feature of the Brahmaputra's braided course through Assam.
- Upper Assam districts including Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat lie downstream of hill ranges where deforestation and jhum cultivation directly affect runoff and sediment yield into the river system.
The combination of a naturally sediment-heavy, seismically active river system with anthropogenic slope destabilisation (mining, deforestation, jhum) is presented as the compounding cause of the severity of the 2026 floods in Upper Assam.
- Death toll from the 2026 Assam floods: 98, concentrated in Sivasagar, Charaideo, and Jorhat districts.
- NDMA structure established under the Disaster Management Act, 2005; NDMA chaired by the Prime Minister.
- Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines issued in 2016; Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining issued in 2020.
- Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill passed by Lok Sabha (December 2024) and Rajya Sabha (March 2025).
- Assam lies in Seismic Zone V, the highest earthquake hazard classification under India's seismic zoning system.