At least 41 people have died in northern India, swept away by floods and landslides triggered by several days of heavy rains, according to a new report announced Tuesday, October 19 by the authorities.
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"
30 people have been killed and many more are missing,
" an official from Nainital district in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand told AFP.
This toll brings to 35 the death toll on Tuesday in this state, where six other people had died the day before in landslides.
According to the weather forecast, heavy rains are also expected to hit the southern state of Kerala in the coming days, where flooding has already killed more than 27 people since Friday, with thousands of evacuations.
A phenomenon amplified by global warming
Five members of the same family were notably buried in their house, said a local official, Prateek Jain. Five other victims were killed in a landslide that occurred in Almora district in northern Uttarakhand and engulfed their home under rocks and mud.
The Indian meteorological services extended their alert on Tuesday and forecast "
heavy
" to "
very heavy
"
rains
in the region for the next two days. In places, more than 400 mm of water fell on Monday. Authorities have ordered schools to be closed and banned all religious or tourist activity in the state. Images broadcast by television and circulating on social networks show residents making their way through the water that reaches their knees near the tourist site of Lake Nainital, or the Ganges which overflows in the city of Rishikesh. More than a hundred tourists were stranded in the Ramgarh resort due to the flooding of the Kosi river which inundated several localities.
Landslides regularly hit the northern Himalayas of India but their number is increasing according to experts with global warming, melting glaciers, construction of hydroelectric dams and deforestation.
In February, a flash flood devastated Uttarakhand's Rishiganga Valley, killing some 200 people.
Only about sixty bodies were found.
