Water levels in swollen rivers in eastern India started receding today as authorities continued to evacuate hundreds of flood-hit people from their homes.
Nearly seven million people in more than 10,000 villages have been badly hit by the floodwaters which have so far claimed 45 lives and left more than a million marooned since spreading into giant lakes across Orissa state earlier this week.
"The trend in most rivers is that the water levels are falling," said Mr Manmohan Rath, deputy secretary in the Orissa government.
But officials said lots of stagnant water had built up and evacuation of marooned people was continuing.
Special relief commissioner Mr Rishikesh Panda said 20,000 people were evacuated from floodhit areas on last night and this morning.
More than 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes in the state yesterday as torrents of water released from a dam poured into already-flooded coastal plains.
The entire Mahanadi delta, comprising mainly four districts with over five million people, has been devastated, said Mr M.K. Nayak, a senior Orissa government official.
Triggered by unusually heavy monsoon season rains in Orissa and neighbouring upstream states, the floods cut off several hundred villages and washed away thousands of houses.
Officials say 22 out of the state's 30 districts have been affected by the floods.
Monsoon rains in Orissa have been unusually heavy this year. The state received 820 mm (32 inches) of rain between June 1st and July 18th, almost double the normal level for the period.
Officials said the floods had badly damaged much of the rice crop, but had spared the country's second-largest aluminium firm, National Aluminium .