India monsoon floods, landslides kill more than 100 since July
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Residents have used rafts and inflated boats to reach higher ground with the help of disaster response officials.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW DELHI – Floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rain have killed more than 100 people across India since July, official data showed on Aug 5, with thousands forced to flee their inundated homes.
While the annual monsoon brings rainfall that farmers depend on, scientists say climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly across the South Asia region.
India’s north-eastern state of Assam is among the hardest hit by the annual rains, with at least 87 people killed, according to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
In the state’s worst-affected Sivasagar district, some 47 people have been killed as several areas remain underwater.
The state authorities have appealed for financial donations from the public to support relief and rehabilitation efforts.
“The devastation here is unlike anything these areas have witnessed before,” Sarma posted on social media platform X.
“Material losses can be restored, but no compensation can replace a loved one.”
Severe weather
AFP images showed residents using rafts and inflated boats to reach higher ground with the help of the state’s disaster response officials.
In India’s southern state of Kerala, Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan said at least 15 people have been killed and another seven were missing after heavy rain over several days.
More than 300 relief camps have been set up in the state, sheltering more than 10,000 people, after rain triggered landslides and swollen rivers breached their banks.
In the Himalayan territory of Jammu and Kashmir, at least 31 people have been killed in several short bursts of extremely intense rainfall, according to a report by the public state broadcaster.
Lightning strikes, common during monsoon, killed at least 22 people in the eastern states of Bihar and Jharkhand since Aug 4, local disaster response officials said.
The dead, mostly farmers working in paddy fields and cattle grazers, included four children, the officials said on Aug 5.
Monsoon-related disasters are an annual occurrence across India after the region’s long summers when many parts of the country face water scarcity and drought.
Neighbouring Sri Lanka has also seen unusually heavy monsoon rain that has caused flash floods and mudslides, claiming the lives of at least eight people since Aug 3, according to the Disaster Management Centre.
Some 12,000 people have been driven out of their flooded homes in the central region.
At the same time, the country’s eastern regions were in the grip of a severe drought, with the authorities having to transport drinking water for residents in tanker trucks.
The government in July said the severe weather events were due to 2026’s El Nino weather phenomenon, which warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. AFP
