Monsoon floods kill 131 in India

More than 7,200 villages have been inundated and some 176,000 people left homeless by monsoon floods in India’s western Gujarat state, where a dead lion washed up with dozens of other casualties, officials and news reports said today.

At least 131 people have died in Gujarat over the past week, according to figures from the state flood response centre.

Also, one of the world’s 359 remaining Asiatic lions was found drowned on Friday near Gujarat’s Droneshwar dam, down river from its home in the Gir wildlife sanctuary, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Soldiers were assisting police and civilian rescue workers in the area, while air force helicopters took part in rescue missions and food drops. Most of the homeless in Gujarat are poor villagers who also lost their cattle and belongings.

India’s monsoon season begins in June and continues until the end of September. Downpours have lashed Gujarat since last weekend, submerging vast areas.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Pakistan, army troops in life jackets used motor boats to help feed and rescue thousands of people marooned by flash floods that have inundated dozens of villages in the country’s North West Frontier province, an official said. No casualties have been reported.

Flash floods washed away two homes, several rice paddies and maize fields in Swat district, said Abdul Wali Yousafzai, an official at the flood warning centre in the provincial capital, Peshawar. No one was reported hurt.

Fresh rains in neighbouring Afghanistan are swelling the Kabul River, which flows into the Swat River, and “we are expecting more flooding,” Yousafzai said, adding flood alerts were issued in the districts of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera.

Meanwhile, the provincial government appealed for financial assistance to provide shelter, ood and medicine for flood-hit people.

“We are using our own resources but they are limited. Therefore, the central government and the international community should help the trouble-stricken people in the province,” said Siraj-ul Haq, the province’s finance minister.

Haq said the worst floods in more than a decade have totally or partially damaged 14,000 homes in the three districts.