Dibrugarh: Water thundered down mountainsides as landslides buried roads, forcing 24 bikers from Assam to abandon their ride near the India-Myanmar border.The group from Lakwa in Sivasagar district encountered landslides, swollen rivers and collapsed roads in Nagaland two days before floods tore through upper Assam.The bikers reached Mon district on July 18 during a monsoon expedition to Dan. The next morning, heavy rain made their journey from Noklak to Dan increasingly dangerous.“We are from Lakwa in Sivasagar. We went on a monsoon ride to Dan near the Myanmar border. We reached there on July 18. The next day, while travelling from Noklak to Dan, it started raining heavily. Water was gushing down the mountains. We crossed a few flooded stretches, but eventually we reached a point where we could not move forward. We had to turn back,” a rider recounted in a post.Several roads were buried under debris, forcing the group to clear sections before continuing home.“There were landslides everywhere. In many places, entire mountains came down onto the roads,” the biker said.Deep water made the return journey particularly perilous. Teammate Moushaq reportedly pulled 14 motorcycles across a flooded stretch.“One of our teammates, Moushaq, pulled 14 motorcycles across a flooded section by himself. Without his help, many of us would have remained stranded,” another biker said.The riders said the Tuli river and its surroundings changed beyond recognition within 48 hours.“When we crossed the Tuli river , we were shocked. For nearly 500 metres, there was nothing but water. Trees, bamboo, everything was washed away. When we went there, everything was normal. Two days later, the roads were gone, and the entire landscape changed,” a biker said.The group believes water rushing down the Naga Hills later entered Assam’s rivers, contributing to flooding across upper Assam, including Sivasagar.
