Severe floods kill 120 in Gujarat
ahmedabad — Widespread flooding in India’s western industrial state of Gujarat has killed more than 120 people and paralysed infrastructure, officials said on Friday, with tens of thousands of cotton farmers also suffering heavy damage.
Torrential monsoon rain and flooding in recent weeks have killed at least 300 people in western and eastern states, an official in the National Disaster Management Authority said in New Delhi.
“Our teams are working in different parts of India with soldiers to ease the situation,” said Deepak Ghai, an emergency control officer.
More than a million households had been affected and losses to farmlands were being assessed.
The airport in Ahmedabad, the main commercial hub of Gujarat, was partially flooded, forcing airlines to divert flights. More than 150 factories were forced to shut down, said A.R. Raval, a district administrator.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams present in the state are engaged in rescue and relief operations in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Aravalli, Bhuj, Banaskantha, Dwarka, Rajkot, Patan, Surat, Valsad and Morbi districts of the state.
Banaskantha and Patan are the worst-hit districts due to incessant downpour and the swelling Banas and Sipu rivers. The floods have come at a particularly bad time for cotton farmers in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state. Raval said more than 50,000 were struggling to drain water from their land and homes.
Recent downpours have hit cotton and millet in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Rains have been 4 per cent above average since the fourmonth monsoon season began in June, according to the state-run India Meteorological Department. — Reuters, PTI