By Muhammad Luqman
Monsoon rains and floods have sofar killed over 500 people in South Asian states of Bangladesh and India while Pakistani rivers are also surging due to increased frequency of rains especially over the upper catchments located in India and Indian-controlled Kashmir. In Pakistan, over 70 persons have been killed during the current Monsoon season due to rain-related accidents like building collapse and drowning in nullahs.
According to media reports, severe monsoon flooding has killed 213 people in western Indian state of Gujarat as rescuers continue to sift through villages devastated by torrential rains.
The death toll in Gujarat , the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, jumped from Wednesday’s total of 123 to 213 on Monday.
Rescue workers have moved close to 130,000 people from low-lying, dangerous areas as helicopters and boats continue to try to reach those still stranded.
Like Gujarat, the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, already plagued by separatist movements, have been 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 hectares of crops have been destroyed.
In Bangladesh, rains and floods have sofar claimed lives of over 200 persons, mainly due to drowning and landslides related accidents.
According to climate experts, increasingly severe weather, triggered by climate change, is putting hundreds of millions of people at risk across the rapidly developing countries of south Asia.
“In the next 30 years, it is projected that heavy rainfall events will be increasing … in Asia, by about 20 percent for sure,” says a report of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ..
