Deadly Monsoon Floods Leave Thousands Homeless in N India

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC HAZARDS
MAJOR DISASTER
EXTREME RAIN EVENTS
DEADLY MONSOON FLOODS
DEADLY LANDSLIDES
CROP DISASTERS
SCENARIOS 888, 444, 111, 070, 066, 023, 09, 03
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Deadly floods bury hundreds of villages in north India

Heavy monsoon rains have triggered severe flooding submerging 500 villages in northern India, killing scores of people and leaving thousands homeless, officials said.

The extreme rain events have also caused numerous landslides across the country. In  neighboring Nepal hundreds are dead or unaccounted for as a result of flooding.

“Nearly 500 villages in Bahraich, Shrawasti, and Lakhimpur Kheri are hit, mostly by a swollen Rapti, with Ghaghara, another perennial trans-boundary river originating on the Tibetan plateau near Lake Mansarovar, flowing above the danger mark in Barabanki, Siddharth Nagar and Faizabad,” said Times of India.

“In Bahraich, around 470 villages of Balha, Mihipurwa and Shivpu blocks are submerged under water following damage to the Saryu canal. District administration feared several hundred people might have got swept away in the flood…”

Forecasters say more rain could exacerbate the flooding in Uttar Pradesh,  India’s most populous state, and Uttarakhand in the Himalayas, Reuters reported chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh as saying.

“With the floods wreaking havoc in Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur and Gonda districts in Uttar Pradesh, a population of about four lakh [400,000 people] in the marooned villages has been cut off from the mainland. As the major rivers, Ghagra, Sharda, Rapti and their tributaries are in spate, more villages in these districts are likely to be affected,” said a local report.

Flood waters have caused enormous damage to crops, destroying thousands of kachcha houses and killing thousands of cattle across the region.

There are fears that flooding could also severely damage the country’s sugarcane crops. India is world’s second-largest sugar producer.

Related Links

• Deadly Floods, Landslides Plague Third of Nepal August 16, 2014