New Delhi - At least 21.8 million people have been affected by floods brought on by incessant rains in 16 states across India during the current monsoon season, a federal government release said Sunday.

A total of 2,229 people have died in rain-related incidents, the federal Disaster Management Department release said. Officials said most of the deaths were cases of drowning or caused by landslides, house collapses and water-borne diseases.

Unofficial estimates, based on local reports from the worst- affected states of eastern Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal suggest the toll could be much higher.

A senior official in Orissa described the situation as "grim" as the Mahanadi river breached its embankment at more than 30 places over Saturday and Sunday flooding large swathes of land and affecting 1.9 million people, PTI news agency reported.

The official death toll from the Mahanadi river breach is so far 16. Army helicopters were helping in relief and rescue operations.

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has asked the federal government to declare the floods in the state a national disaster and release immediate funds. HC Behera, engineer-in-chief of the state's water resource department, said the floods were the most "furious" in the last 55 years.

In the northern hill state of Himachal Pradesh, 35 people are reported to have died in landslides brought on by heavy rains over the past 48 hours.

In northern Uttar Pradesh, similar rains since Thursday also led to house collapses and toppled trees killing at least 42 people, the Indian Express newspaper reported.

Parts of western Gujarat and Maharashtra states remained flooded. Hundreds of villages were submerged along with major road links cutting off supply and rescue routes, PTI reported.

In eastern Bihar state, the worst-affected in this season's floods, the administration struggled to provide relief to the over 4.6 million people affected by floods. The official death toll in the Bihar floods is 212 so far.

Besides Bihar, southern Andhra Pradesh with 4.4 million people affected and West Bengal with 3.8 million, have borne the brunt of the monsoon rains.

India's monsoon season, which begins in June usually starts petering out by mid-September. But this year, the rains have continued in several parts of the north, east and west.

The India Meteorological Department predicted heavy showers in northern India over the next 24 hours but said it was likely to decrease in the north-west and east. (dpa)