Authorities race to identify bodies as rescue workers reach new areas and fear monsoon death toll will rise further

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western India with officials fearing the death toll would rise as receding waters revealed additional victims.

Nearly 130,000 people have been relocated to safer ground in Gujarat state after hundreds of cities and villages were devastated by weeks of torrential rain.

Helicopters and boats are combing areas including the deluged Banaskantha district where 25 bodies, including 17 members of one family, were discovered in two submerged villages last week.

On Sunday, surviving members of the family met the Gujarat chief minister, Vijay Rupani, who said the rainfall had triggered “the worst flood of the century” in parts of the state.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Soldiers rescue stranded flood victims in Khariya village, Gujarat. Photograph: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images

Nearly 700 people have died across India in recent weeks as monsoon rain has submerged roads, damaged electricity networks and triggered lethal lightning storms.

Overwhelmed authorities in Gujarat said the state’s death toll, which jumped by 90 in the past day, was likely to increase as new victims were discovered. “Only after a postmortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person,” an official at the Gujarat emergency control room told Agence France-Presse. “Since many bodies were found, postmortems took time, hence the sudden jump in numbers.”

The flooding has paralysed Gujarat, with flights diverted from the airport in its largest city, Ahmedabad, more than 150 factories shut down, and an estimated 50,000 cotton farms waterlogged.

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More than 4,000 animals were thought to have been killed so far, local reports said.



The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, who surveyed the devastation from an aircraft last week, has already pledged at least £60m in funding for interim relief efforts. In his monthly radio address on Sunday he said “maximum possible efforts” were being made to assist residents of the state he led as chief minister for 12 years and several others affected by heavy rain in the past week.

Modi said the floods had wreaked havoc on a massive scale, adding that altered weather cycles linked to climate change were having a big negative impact. He announced 200,000 rupees’ compensation (£2,374) to the families of those killed in the deluge and 50,000 rupees to those seriously injured.

As well as Gujarat, the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hit by monsoon flooding, as have pockets of Odisha and Bihar in the country’s east. Lightning storms in Odisha and another state, Jharkhand, killed 21 people on Monday with more inclement weather expected throughout this week.

Most of the victims were working in fields when lightning struck them, disaster management authority officials said. Thousands of Indians are killed by lightning each year, most of them working in fields during the June to October monsoon season.

Bihar has reported nearly 140 lightning deaths since May.

Suresh Kumar, West Bengal’s top disaster management official, said 31 deaths had also been reported in a week of flooding in the state. “Heavy rains have caused massive damage in several districts,” Kumar told AFP.

In Assam at least 77 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been under way since April. Tens of thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed and at least 91 animals, including seven rhinoceros, were killed in flooding at the state’s Kaziranaga national park.

The national park, which rangers said was about 90% underwater, is one of the few remaining habitats of the rare one-horned rhino. The species’ numbers – about 3,300, according to the last count four years ago – have been dented in past years by poachers and flooding in 2016 that killed more than 20, nearly half of them calves.

Meteorologists said the rainfall in Gujarat, close to the heaviest in 112 years, was the result of low-pressure systems developing simultaneously over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea.



Flooding kills thousands of people each year in India, the damage exacerbated by weak enforcement of building standards, high rates of poverty and unplanned communities springing up in high-risk areas. Research in 2016 found that flooding was the most significant risk to communities and businesses in south Asia and that about 113 million people in India – nearly 10% of the population – were acutely exposed to flood hazard. </s> Ahmedabad, July 13 (IANS) As many as 19 people were killed in Gujarat following torrential rains during the past one week, even as the state government relocated more than 1,000 persons to safer places.

“Heavy rains have caused a total of 19 deaths in the state since last week. We also have reports of 84 cattle perishing in the rains. Around 978 persons from across the state, primarily South Gujarat, have been evacuated to safety,” Manoj Kothari, Relief Commissioner, Gujarat, told reporters on Thursday.

“Many villages also do not have electricity but we are trying to restore power supply at the earliest,” he said.

Navsari district in South Gujarat, which has been witnessing heavy rains this season, is the most affected in the state. The authorities have put around 10 villages in Navsari on alert, with a dozen others in danger of being marooned.

The state has deployed a total of fifteen teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in the state, out of which four teams are in South Gujarat, four teams in Vadodara, three teams in Gandhinagar and one team each in Amreli, Jamnagar, Palanpur and Mahisagar districts.

During the past 24 hours, 118 of the total 251 talukas (tehsils/blocks) in the state have received heavy rainfall, with more than two inches of rains lashing over 30 talukas. Heavy rains continued in the South Gujarat region on the second consecutive day. Waghai in Dangs district received over 121 mm of rains, followed by Surat city with 107 mm and Bharuch and Dolvan in Tapi district with around 95 mm.

With heavy inflow of waters from the catchment area, Ambika river in Navsari district and Poorna river in Dangs district were in spate and 206 roads, including one national highway and four state highways were shut down for vehicular traffic.

A police station in the Sachin GIDC estate region of Surat had to be evacuated after it got flooded, forcing policemen to move out. The authorities asked the schools and other educational establishments to remain shut for the day.

The Saurashtra region of the state also had good downpour with Kodinar in Gir Somnath district receiving heavy rains of 115 mm and Talaja in Bhavnagar district about 100 mm of rain till 6 p.m. on Thursday, according to figures provided by state emergency operation centre.

The meteorological department issued warnings of heavy to very heavy rains in many parts of the state for next 48 hours. “South Gujarat, East-Central districts of the state and coastal Saurashtra districts would receive heavy to very heavy rains and at some isolated places even extreme heavy rains are expected in Surat, Navsari and Valsad.”

“Heavy rains are also expected to lash some isolated regions of Panchmahals, Dahod, Mahisagar and Kheda districts. Other part of the state could witness moderate to heavy rains in coming four days,” Jayanta Sarkar, Director, Met Department, said. </s> A man pushes his bicycle through a water-logged street after heavy rains in Ahmedabad, India.

AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - Widespread flooding in India's western industrial state of Gujarat has killed more than 120 people and paralyzed infrastructure, officials said on Friday, with tens of thousands of cotton farmers also suffering heavy damage.

Torrential monsoon rain and flooding in recent weeks have killed at least 300 people in western and eastern states, an official in the National Disaster Management Authority told Reuters in New Delhi.

"Our teams are working in different parts of India with soldiers to ease the situation," said Deepak Ghai, an emergency room control officer.

More than a million households had been affected and losses to farmlands were being assessed.

The airport in Ahmedabad, the main commercial hub of Gujarat, was partially flooded, forcing airlines to divert flights. More than 150 factories were forced to shut down, said A.R. Raval, a district administrator.

The floods have come at a particularly bad time for cotton farmers in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state.

Raval said more than 50,000 were struggling to drain water from their land and homes.

Recent downpours have hit cotton and millet in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where farm experts now fear pest infestations.

"Cotton and millet harvests are expected to suffer in about three districts each in Gujarat and Rajasthan, but the biggest worry is that the extra moisture could lead to pest attacks in these areas," Devinder Sharma, an independent farm expert, said.

Rains have been 4 percent above average since the four-month monsoon season began in June, according to the state-run India Meteorological Department. </s> Floods in the western Indian state of Gujarat have killed 218 people, government officials have confirmed.

The death toll doubled over the last two days as officials found more than 100 bodies once waters began receding.

Officials estimate that the floods have affected 450,000 people in the state.

This years monsoon rains have affected millions across at least 20 states in India. The north-eastern state of Assam has also seen dozens killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The government has announced aid packages for affected areas and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit Assam on Tuesday.

He has said the aim of his visit is to find a "permanent solution" to the flooding that Assam faces every year.

The Press Trust of India news agency quoted an official as saying that many affected people in Gujarat had begun returning to their villages. </s> New Delhi: The death toll from a fresh spell of monsoon-driven floods in India has climbed to 154 and affected more than 1 million residents, officials said on Sunday.

 At least 60 people have died and 229,000 have been moved to relief camps in the southern state of Kerala since Thursday, officials at the disaster management control room said.

 “The flood situation remains grim and agencies are on high alert in six districts. Many deaths have been reported in rain-triggered landslides in Wayanad and Malappuram districts,” an official said.

 Thirty-four more people had died and 481,000 people were either displaced or evacuated to safety in the neighbouring Karnataka statein the same period.

 At least 30 more have been killed and 400,000 people have been affected in the western state of Maharashtra since Monday, according to officials.

 An equal number had died in torrential rains in the neighboring state of Gujarat on Saturday alone, the Hindu newspaper reported.

 While Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat were worst-hit, more states have reported flooding, including Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Goa and Andhra Pradesh.

 Rescue teams from the disaster response force, army, navy and airforce were deployed in these states for rescue and relief operations.

 India’s monsoon season between June and September sees heavy rains which are vital for agriculture but cause immense destruction and loss of life.

 Dozens died in floods in India particularly in the eastern states of Bihar and Assam last month, with the inundation causing heavy losses to farms, homes and infrastructure. DPA </s> Bollywood actor has asked his and followers on to help flood-stricken states of and by contributing to the Chief Minister Relief Fund.

 

 The 52-year-old star today shared a video message on Twitter urging everyone to come together to support those affected 



"Some areas of and are terribly affected by People are facing a tough time. Many have lost their lives. We are helpless in front of nature, but can surely do something for our brothers and sisters."Let us come together and help the people in and Let us contribute to the Chief Minister Relief Fund of both the states," Aamir said.In Assam, as many as 79 people have lost their lives in the devastating floods, till yesterday.According to the figures of the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC), Gujarat, 72 people have drowned in the state this monsoon. Till July 26, 123 people had died in the state due to rain-related incidents. </s> Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani assured Saturday that the situation with regard to floods in the districts is under control. He said that over 8000 people have been rescued and 70,000 people have been shifted to safer places. Around 100 people have lost their lives due to the floods so far. “The situation in Gujarat is under control, more than 8000 people have been rescued and it is very saddening for us that we couldn’t save the lives of approximately 100 people. 70,000 people have been migrated so far,” Rupani told ANI.

The Golden Katar Division of the Indian Army had released two additional columns on July 26; fully equipped with specialized equipment to bolster the ongoing operations in the flood hit districts, in response to an increased requirement for aerial rescue and relief effort projected by the state government. There are now a total of five Indian Army Columns engaged in rescuing people in the flood ravaged villages of Gujarat.

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There is IMD forecast as well as Central Water Commission (CWC) has issued an advisory warning rapid rise in three river basins namely Mahi, Sabarmati and Narmada. We have deployed 32 NDRF and other rescue teams in districts that are likely to be affected,” the Principal Secretary Revenue Department of Gujarat Pankaj Kumar. He added, “We have also started the process to compensate who have suffered due to the floods.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh to the next kin of those killed in Gujarat floods, and Rs. 50,000 to those injured. </s> KOCHI/BENGALURU (Reuters) - The death toll from floods in India's states of Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra rose to 95, official figures showed on Saturday, as heavy rain and landslides forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes.

Seasonal monsoon rains from June to September are a crucial lifeline for agrarian Indian society, delivering 70% of the country's rainfall, but they also bring in their wake death and destruction every year.

Some 42 people died in southwestern Kerala and over 100,000 affected people have been evacuated, the central government's disaster management cell said, after 80 landslides hit the state in two days.

The state planned to open the gates of Banasurasagar dam in Wayanad district at 0930 GMT, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said during a news conference in the city of Kochi. Shutters of the dam were partially opened on Saturday morning to manage the water level and avoid serious damage, a senior state official of the district confirmed to Reuters.

A red alert, or severe rainfall and bad weather conditions forecast, has been issued for seven out of 14 districts in the state, the Kerala State Disaster Management control room told Reuters on Saturday.

Last year, Kerala was hit by one of its worst floods in one hundred years. More than 200 people were killed and over 5 million affected.

The state's busiest airport, Cochin International Airport, has been closed since Friday as the taxiway is water-logged. The airport is expected to reopen from Sunday as water levels had started to recede, the state body said.

In neighbouring Karnataka, home to India's tech hub Bengaluru, some 24 people have died in what chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa said on Saturday were the worst floods in 45 years.

Around 1,024 villages have been inundated due to the rains, several dams were reaching their full capacity, and over 200,000 people had been evacuated, he added.

As many as 16 of the state's 30 districts have been affected by the heavy rains and 235,105 people have been evacuated and shifted to 624 relief camps, Yeddyurappa added.

In Maharashtra, home to India's financial capital Mumbai, 29 people have died this week.

The Indian Meteorological Department said on its website that heavy to very heavy rain was likely to lash isolated areas of Kerala, parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra, and some southern states might also see extremely heavy rain on Saturday. </s> Ahmedabad: Severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western India, an official said Sunday, as rescuers continue to sift through villages devastated by torrential rains.

The death toll in Gujarat jumped from Wednesday’s total of 123 as waters recede from low-lying areas, allowing workers to reach remote spots where bodies are starting to appear. “The death toll in Gujarat this monsoon has risen to 213,” A.J Shah, director of relief operations with the Gujarat government, told AFP.

Overwhelmed authorities, who expect the toll to rise still further, said they have struggled to cope with the number of bodies needing identification and post-mortems, resulting in delays in confirming the latest deaths.

An official at the state’s emergency control room explained that “only after a post-mortem is conducted we can officially confirm death of a person”. “Since many bodies were found, postmortem took time hence the sudden jump in numbers,” the official, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

The rise comes after rescuers plucked 25 bodies, including 17 members of a single family, on Wednesday from two submerged villages in hard-hit Banaskantha district of Gujarat.

Rescue workers have moved close to 130,000 people from low-lying, dangerous areas as helicopters and boats try to reach those still stranded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who surveyed the devastation across Gujarat from the skies last week, in his radio show on Sunday reassured flood-hit states that all help was being provided to them.

As well as Gujarat, the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam have been hard-hit by monsoon flooding, while pockets of the eastern states of Odisha and Bihar have also been affected.

In Assam at least 77 people have been killed and a state-wide emergency relief operation has been underway since April. Tens of thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed.
Following heavy rain in July 2017, the Gujarat state of India was affected by a severe flood resulting in more than 200 deaths.