By Biswajyoti Das
GUWAHATI, India, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Overnight monsoon rain in India's northeast on Wednesday raised flood waters which are feared to have killed about 300 people in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh and made millions homeless.
The final toll could be higher as heavy showers are forecast in the next 24 hours for Assam, India's worst-hit region, where survivors face hunger and disease.
Official figures from the four countries show 184 people have died and 115 gone missing since swollen rivers began gushing off the Himalayas two weeks ago.
Relief officials in Assam said three million people had been displaced and more than 200,000 hectares (490,000 acres) of crop area affected.
''It's worrying that there are huge numbers of people still unable to return to their villages,'' Patrick Fuller, regional spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters.
''The fear is that if there is sustained rain in the Himalayas we could then see flash floods which will exacerbate the situation,'' he added.
In Assam, hundreds of displaced people were forced to take shelter under trees after heavy rains lashed the region last night.
Desperate for food, several people made crude boats and rafts from banana leaves and fished in flood waters while others cooked on bullock-carts parked by the roadside.
''We have lost everything in floods, our house has been washed away and several tonnes of rice kept in the storehouse were damaged by water,'' Meena Malakar, a housewife in Assam's Satdola village, said. ''Now we have no other option but to go begging.''
FEARS OF DISEASE INCREASE
Health and relief officials said they feared an outbreak of diseases like gastroenteritis with several villages still cut off and decomposed carcasses of cows and other animals floating in flood waters.
''We haven't received reports of high numbers of people suffering from water-borne diseases, but there may be people in cut-off villages who could be suffering,'' Fuller said.
''There is a scarcity of pure drinking water and I am feeding my children with coconut water as a precaution to save them from water-borne diseases,'' added Dilip Das, a flood victim staying in a makeshift camp in Assam.
Officials said heavy rains in Assam had hit relief and rescue operations.
''The water levels in most rivers were receding for two days but again due to heavy rainfall last night, the rivers are overflowing,'' Assam's Director (Information) Manoj Deb told Reuters.
The floods have snapped communication links, washed away bridges and railway lines, forcing government authorities to depend on army helicopters and boats for relief missions.
Although rivers in the eastern province of Bihar continued to recede on Wednesday, officials said the swollen Ganges has inundated several fresh areas in the state.
According to the state's relief and rehabilitation department, 32 people had died in the floods so far, over 1.6 million left homeless and 31,000 cattle drowned.
''The crop damage is estimated to be to the tune of 105 million rupees. Altogether 124,000 hectares of agricultural land are flooded, washing standing crops of banana, sugarcane, tobacco and sunflower,'' the relief and rehabilitation commissioner said.
In Bihar's Hasanpur village, a poor farm labourer rummaged through the debris of his collapsed hut, trying to pull out the few remaining bricks to rebuild his home.
''Nothing is left and nobody has come to rescue us. We have been given nothing to eat and we are starving,'' said Bimal Kumar Rai.