Ground zero of Assam’s flood fury: Village vanishes in an hour; toll rises to 78

GUWAHATI: Hiloni Nepali Khuti, a thriving village in Assam's Sivasagar district, along the banks of the Dikhow river, consisting of around 200 Gorkha families, has been wiped out by the devastating floods.Once a hamlet of happy souls, it is now reduced to just a barren stretch of sand and debris.Located barely 500 metres from the Dikhow and 3 km from the Assam-Nagaland border, Hiloni Nepali Khuti's fortunes changed forever on the fateful afternoon of July 19, when the river tore through its settlements and swept away homes and families, after a bout of torrential rain in Nagaland led to a massive increase in its volume.Until that morning, the river was a familiar and friendly sight, but all that changed after it rendered an entire settlement, relying primarily on dairy farming to Nazira and nearby towns, homeless.On that fateful morning, the villagers had gone to collect logs and firewood from the…