Assam’s flood crisis deepened further on Friday, with the state disaster authority confirming 47 deaths since the monsoon season began and warning that the toll is likely to rise as roughly 40 people remain unaccounted for. More than 7.21 lakh people are now affected across 11 districts, according to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), up from 6.53 lakh just a day earlier.

Six of the latest deaths were recorded in the 24 hours to Thursday night, ASDMA’s flood bulletin showed. Sivasagar district accounted for four of them, including a woman and a child who drowned in floodwater, while two more deaths — one of them a child — were reported from neighbouring Charaideo. Sivasagar remains the worst-hit district by a wide margin, with close to 3.8 lakh people affected, followed by Charaideo at nearly 1.9 lakh and Jorhat at more than 1.2 lakh.

Several rivers continued to flow above danger and severe-flood marks on Friday morning, among them the Dikhow at Sivasagar town, the Buridihing at Khowang, the Disang at Nanglamuraghat, the Dhansiri at Numaligarh and the Kushiyara at Sribhumi. ASDMA officials said the rising Dikhow in particular had prompted fresh advisories warning residents to stay away from the riverbank.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters in Guwahati that relief teams had reached roughly 80 percent of the affected population and were working to cover the remainder by the end of Friday. He is set to chair a video conference with district commissioners and senior officials across the flood-hit districts to review the response, and said a central government team would visit the state on July 25 to assess the damage.

Authorities are running 358 relief camps and distribution centres across nine districts, currently housing more than 24,000 displaced people. The Army, NDRF, SDRF, fire and emergency services, police and civil administration have between them rescued around 5,000 people from Golaghat, Jorhat and Sivasagar in recent days. ASDMA put the wider damage at 883 villages still under water, more than 25,375 hectares of cropland destroyed, and over 3.71 lakh domestic animals and poultry affected, with embankments, roads and bridges damaged in multiple districts.

The India Meteorological Department has forecast further rain over Assam in the coming days, which officials fear could push already-swollen rivers higher and complicate an already stretched relief operation.