India floods kill more than 270, displace 1 million

More than 270 people have been killed, 1 million displaced and thousands of homes across six states inundated by floods and landslides in India this month.

Indian authorities said the rains from June to September were lifeline for rural India, delivering some 70% of the country’s rainfall, but they also caused death and destruction each year.

The southern states of Kerala and Karnataka, and Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west were among the hardest hit by floods that washed away thousands of hectares of summer-sown crops and damaged roads and rail lines.

At least 95 people were killed and more than 50 are missing in Kerala, where heavy rainfall triggered dozens of landslides last week and trapped more than 100 people.

An aerial view shows a flooded residential area after heavy rains in Ahmedabad, India, August 10, 2019. Photo: Reuters

About 190,000 people are still living in relief camps in the state, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, but he added some people are returning home as flood waters recede.

In neighbouring Karnataka, home to the technology hub Bengaluru, 54 people died and 15 are missing after rivers burst their banks when authorities released water from dams.

Nearly 700,000 people have been evacuated in the state.

Heavy rainfall is expected in parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, as well as the central state of Madhya Pradesh, in the next two days, weather officials said.

In Maharashtra, which includes the financial capital Mumbai, 48 people died but flood waters are receding, said a state official.

“We are now trying to restore electricity and drinking water supplies,” he said.

In Madhya Pradesh, the biggest producer of soybeans, heavy rains killed 32 people and damaged crops, authorities said.

In Gujarat, 31 people died in rain-related incidents, while landslides killed nearly a dozen people in the northern hilly state of Uttarakhand.