NEW DELHI: Torrential rains that have lashed South Asia since June have killed hundreds of people, forced thousands to evacuate and caused widespread devastation with floods and landslides during a dangerous monsoon season, official data showed on Tuesday.
Weather disasters are common during the monsoon season from June to September, but experts say climate change is making them more frequent and severe.
According to official national data, the death toll is at least 250 in India, 171 in Nepal and 178 in Pakistan.
In India, fierce storms caused widespread flooding and landslides, just months after the country was hit by its longest-ever heatwave, government weather experts said.
The scorching heat in May and June saw temperatures in New Delhi match the capital's previous record of 49.2°C (120.5°F) recorded in 2022.
Now the heat has turned to rain.
The India Meteorological Department has warned of “heavy rains” across many southern and northeastern states this week.
Rescue teams were searching for two missing people after floods swept through Himachal Pradesh's Una district on Tuesday, drowning nine people.
Witnesses saw the car being swept away like a toy in the swollen, muddy river. “Several people tried to stop the car but as the current was getting stronger, the car sped past and was soon swept away by the strong current,” Rajendra Kumar said.
Desert Flood
Dozens of people have been killed in India this month alone, including 200 killed last month in Kerala state when landslides swept through villages and tea plantations.
In Nepal, 171 people have died since monsoon rains began in mid-June, 109 of them in landslides, while disaster management officials say the rest were caused by floods and lightning strikes.
A search was ongoing for two buses that crashed over a concrete barrier and plunged into a raging river in the Chitwan district of central Nepal on July 12, killing about 50 people.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority, 178 people have been killed across Pakistan since the rains began in July, 92 of them children, with home collapses being the biggest cause of death.
In the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, mountain villages have been warned this week that rising temperatures and humidity could lead to glacial lakes flooding.
Monsoon rains, which fall in the region from June to September, provide essential relief from the summer heat and replenish water resources.
They are also essential to agriculture and therefore to the livelihoods of millions of farmers and the food security of around 2 billion people in South Asia.
India is the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases but has committed to becoming a net-zero emissions economy by 2070, 20 years later than most Western countries.
For now, electricity generation is overwhelmingly dependent on coal.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, despite contributing less than 1% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2022, devastating floods submerged a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people, forcing 33 million people to evacuate, and destroying thousands of homes.
