Monsoon floods kill dozens in India, thousands in relief camps

The Indian Air Force flies more than 200 rescue officers and 30 tonnes of emergency aid to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states.

Intense monsoon rains and floods in India’s southern states have killed at least 25 people, with thousands rescued and taken to relief camps, officials say.

At least 16 people have been killed in Telangana state, and nine in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in the past two days.

“Lots of houses have been damaged as well,” Y Nagi Reddy, director general of Telangana’s disaster response and fire service, told AFP news agency on Monday, adding that there had been 400mm (16 inches) of rainfall within the past 24 hours.

According to local media reports, the Telangana government has also urged India’s federal government to declare the floods a “national calamity”.

“The [Telangana] government will submit a comprehensive report on the flood damage to the Centre. We will write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to visit the flood-affected areas in the state and also urging the Centre to declare the floods in Telangana as a national calamity,” a statement released by the government said.

So far, around 3,800 people have been rescued in Telangana and moved to relief camps.

On Monday, the Indian Air Force also said it had flown in more than 200 rescue officers and 30 tonnes of emergency aid to both states.

A rickshaw puller carrying a woman moves through a flooded street in Guwahati, Assam [File: Biju Boro/AFP]

Rains cause widespread destruction every year, but experts say climate change is shifting weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme weather events.

Last week, at least 28 people were killed over three days in the western state of Gujarat. Schools in parts of Kutch district were shut, officials said, as heavy rain lashed the region.

“There is severe water logging in several places in Kachchh district due to heavy rains over the last couple of days. We evacuated people from coastal areas and shifted them to schools and other facilities,” the district collector for Kachchh, Amit Arora, told Reuters news agency last Friday.

India’s weather office said a deep depression had formed over land and would gradually move northwest over the Arabian Sea, causing the intense rainfall.

“Cyclone formation generally takes place over sea and then it moves over to land. This type of system is unusual because it formed over land and is now moving towards the sea,” Ashok Kumar Das, head of the India Meteorological Department in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, told Reuters.

Last month, in the northeastern state of Tripura, floods and landslides killed more than 20 people.

Neighbouring Bangladesh, downriver from India, also experienced deadly floods that killed at least 40 people in August, with nearly 300,000 residents taking refuge in emergency shelters.