Key points
- Scores of people die each year during rainy season due to flash floods across India
- Around 110 others injured in different parts of India over the past two weeks
- Worst-hit states of India include Mizoram, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh
ISLAMABAD: Flash floods and landslides after torrential rain over the last two weeks killed at least 69 people and wounded 110 others in India, officials said Friday.
AFP reported that scores of people die each year during the rainy season due to flash floods and landslides across India, a country of 1.4 billion people.
Rivers swollen by lashing rain — including Beas, which starts from the region’s glacial peaks — disrupted several routes in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
“Cumulative damage”
The “cumulative damage” includes 69 people dead, and 110 others injured in different incidents over the past two weeks, AFP cited the state’s revenue department as saying.
India’s meteorological department on Thursday issued a fresh alert for “heavy to very heavy rainfall” in Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring Uttarakhand, another picturesque Himalayan state popular with Indian tourists, AFP reported.
India’s annual monsoon season from June to September offers respite from the intense summer heat and is crucial for replenishing water supplies, but also brings widespread death and destruction.
Heavy monsoon rains claimed at least 30 lives and injured dozens in India’s remote northeast region in June, AFP reported.
Landslides and flash floods
Other instances of landslides and flash floods were also reported in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Manipur.
The worst-hit states of India include Mizoram, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh, where roads have been washed away, homes flattened, and many rendered homeless, according to India media.
Last month, India’s financial capital Mumbai was swamped by monsoon rain that began two weeks earlier than usual, AFP reported.
