At least 221 people have died and more than 1.5 million have been displaced by monsoon flooding across the south Asia countries of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Many are still missing and the rescuers are still searching for them.
Based on the Nepal’s home minister, on Tuesday 111 people have been killed and 35 are missing. People in Nepal are complaining that there is not enough doing to cope with the disaster.
Bangladesh is also under water with 29 people dead. Almost 1,200 shelters have been erected across Bangladesh.
India has also suffered from torrential downpours and flash flooding, worsening a monsoon that has already claimed lives. At least 81 people have died in the eastern Indian states of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam over the last few days, a government official told AFP on Tuesday.
Train services to the northeast have been cut entirely, and at least 200,000 people are living in emergency camps in Assam, a remote state that suffers frequent flooding during the annual rains.
What is a monsoon?
Monsoon is not like hurricanes or typhoons that happen once. It is a seasonal wind shift in the region. The strongest monsoons tend to occur in India and South Asia in the north and Australia and Malaysia in the south. The monsoon is important in many areas all around the world.
Agriculture in many of these places, such as India, depends heavily on the summer monsoon season, according to World Monsoons. According to National Geographic, hydroelectric plants that produce electricity and the import/export trades are also highly dependent on the monsoon season.
Since there are many factors affecting the occurrence of a monsoon researchers are doing more studies to predict the happening of a monsoon. We hope by having more control over this natural disaster the death toll decreases over the coming years.