More than 270 people in India have been killed with over a million displaced and inundated thousands of homes across six states as a result of floods and landslides, authorities said.
The rains from June to September are a lifeline for rural India, delivering some 70 percent of the country’s rainfall, but they also cause death and destruction each year.
The states of Kerala and Karnataka in the south, along with 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 others.
Nearly 190,000 people are still living in relief camps in the state, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, but he added some were returning home as flood waters receded.
Reports however say about 700,000 people have been evacuated.
Heavy rainfall is expected in the next two days in parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, as well as the central state of Madhya Pradesh, according to weather officials.
In Maharashtra, which includes the financial capital, Mumbai, 48 people died but flood waters were receding, said a state official.
