Rescuers were on Sunday searching for 20 villagers feared killed in a landslide in remote northeast India, as the death toll from recent floods elsewhere in the nation topped 100, officials said.
A side of a hill collapsed on Saturday onto a village in Manipur State close to the border with Myanmar, where monsoon downpours have also triggered landslides and flooding.
Local magistrate Memi Mary said rescuers reached the crushed village after being flown by helicopter and then trekking as blocked roads hampered access to the site, about 80km from the state capital, Imphal.
“So far, we have reports of 20 people killed when a hillock caved and trapped the villagers,” the magistrate said by telephone from the nearby town of Chandel.
Photographs showed a bridge washed away by floodwaters in Manipur after days of torrential rain, while television stations showed footage of a house collapsing and families sleeping in makeshift evacuation centers.
In West Bengal, 42 people have been killed in the past week from floods, while about 250,000 homes have been destroyed, state Minister of Disaster Management Javed Ahmad Khan said.
“The situation is going to worsen. All rivers are flowing above their danger marks,” Khan said.
Flooding in West Bengal has spiked in recent days after the remnants of Cyclone Komen swept across the state from the Bay of Bengal.
The Indian government on Sunday said that rescue operations were under way in the northern state of Rajasthan, where 28 people have died since the monsoon started in June, and about half of those in recent days.
“So far, 630 people have been rescued from various districts in Rajasthan,” the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement.
Another five people perished in Orissa State, where the ministry said rescue operations were also underway.
In the far western state of Gujarat, the death toll from floods has reached 53, after more drownings, electrocutions and other incidents.
More than 10,000 people have been evacuated across Gujarat in the past week, an official in the state’s emergency control room said.
“The death toll has reached 53 since July 26, with 23 deaths in the worst-affected Banaskantha District alone,” the official said.
However, he said waters were now receding, allowing power and communications to be restored.
The monsoon, vital in South Asia for crop production, routinely brings flooding and destruction. India receives nearly 80 percent of its annual rainfall from June to September.
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