Nearly 200 people have died after days of massive flooding and devastating landslides in India and Nepal. Authorities said Thursday, October 21, that entire families were buried in their homes, as forecasts point to further heavy rains.
At least 88 people have died in Nepal. A family of six with three children, whose home was destroyed by a sudden avalanche of earth and debris, perished. The increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather conditions that have hit southern Asia in recent years are caused by climate change, including being exacerbated by deforestation and dam construction, experts say.
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They should continue in India, where the official death toll is 102: the meteorological services notably issued a red alert in the state of West Bengal, in the east of the country, warning that extremely heavy rainfall would continue on Thursday. in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Alipurduar. These last days, already, “Mud, rocks and water rushing down the hills of Darjeeling damaged nearly 400 houses”Disaster Management Minister Javed Ahmed Khan told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that “Several thousand people were evacuated far from swollen rivers”.
The toll could get even worse
“Several hundred tourists are stranded in the mountain resort of Darjeeling”, he further clarified. Many bridges and roads were damaged and many cities were cut off from the world. The army was called upon to restore contact and reach the thousands of people stranded.
The Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, for its part, has confirmed the death of 55 people, including five members of the same family who were buried in their home. State Natural Disasters Secretary Murugeshan said the death toll could rise further with many people still missing, including twenty tourists trekking a glacier.
In Kerala, in southern India, where forty-two people have died since last week, the weather service also warned of heavy rains to come in at least three districts of the state after a respite these last days.
The Red Cross, whose teams are helping with rescue operations in both countries, has warned people living further downstream of new threats from rising flood waters and landslides. “The people of Nepal and India are sandwiched between the pandemic and worsening climate disasters, which has a heavy impact on millions of lives and [sur les] means of subsistence “, said the organization.