"We are bothered about the fresh formation of a low pressure over the Bay of Bengal and are closely monitoring its movement," Subash Pani, the state's seniormost bureaucrat, told Reuters.

The flood victims, with their houses submerged, were living in makeshift tents and surviving on dry food air-dropped by relief workers, witnesses said.

Hundreds of people are killed every year in South Asia during the June-September monsoon season and millions displaced from their homes or marooned in their villages.

HEAVY DAMAGE

Monsoon rains have caused widespread damage this year.

Hundreds of people have been killed in western and southern India and millions left homeless due to flooding. At least 140 people have been killed and thousands left homeless in the western desert state of Rajasthan in the past two weeks.

In Nepal, at least 50 people died last week in flash floods. Thousands of people have been evacuated to dry areas while officials are braced for any outbreak of diseases.

Landslides and flash floods have also affected thousands of people in Pakistan.

In Orissa, continuous rains and flash floods in the past three months have already killed 70 people and crippled road and electricity networks, officials said.

In restive Indian Kashmir, authorities declared a flood alert on Sunday after the Himalayan region's main rivers flowed above the danger mark, flooding villages and damaging crops.