Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains over the past two days have claimed at least 30 lives in India’s northeast, officials reported Sunday.
State disaster authorities confirmed eight deaths in Assam and nine in Arunachal Pradesh, many caused by landslides as waterlogged earth gave way and slid into valleys below. In Mizoram, five people died in a separate landslide, while Meghalaya recorded six fatalities. Additionally, at least two people lost their lives in the states of Nagaland and Tripura.
A red alert remains in effect for several districts after relentless rainfall over the last three days. Rivers swollen by the downpour—including the mighty Brahmaputra, which originates in the Himalayas and flows through northeast India to Bangladesh—overflowed their banks across the region.
The Indian Army reported rescuing hundreds in a large-scale operation across Manipur state, relocating people to safer areas and providing food, water, and essential medicines.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma urged officials to maintain heightened vigilance, especially in landslide-prone and low-lying zones.
Each monsoon season, flash floods and landslides cause numerous deaths across India, a nation of 1.4 billion people. While the monsoon is vital for replenishing water supplies and alleviating summer heat, it also brings significant devastation.
Scientists continue to study how climate change influences shifting monsoon patterns, which have already caused earlier and more intense rainfall events, such as last month’s unusually early monsoon flooding in Mumbai—the earliest in nearly 25 years.
AFP
