Heavy monsoon rains kill more and more people in sudasia and threaten endangered rhinos.
Kaziranga national park in the indian state of assam, home to around two-thirds of all armored rhinos, is almost completely flooded, local media report. Animals had to paddle through floodwaters to reach higher ground because of the masses of water. It was unclear on tuesday whether some drowned in the floods.
At least 23 other park animals drowned, newspapers report. In 2017, 31 of the park’s rare rhinos died because of the monsoon rains, which were already very heavy at the time. According to the animal protection organization WWF, there are around 3500 armored rhinos left in the world. They live in northeastern india, nepal and bhutan.
Since the start of the particularly strong monsoon last week, at least 181 people have died in india, nepal and bangladesh alone, as local authorities reported on tuesday. According to the report, most of the victims were in india. Nearly seven million people were affected – for example, because the floods destroyed their homes, buried them under rubble or destroyed their fields. Many sought emergency shelter.
"The water came in the middle of the night and washed away my house and crops," 80-year-old bano khatun told television station NDTV. The water masses love to collapse houses again and again. In the megacity of mumbai, seven people were recovered dead from the rubble of a 100-year-old apartment building. In addition, there were several injuries and at least 40 people were initially trapped, according to police on tuesday evening (local time).
Floods also caught trellis builders by surprise. Contractor nirmal phaiju and his workers were building a road in gaur in southeastern nepal, which was particularly hard hit by floods. "We had laid out part of the road with gravel, but the rain washed it all away," he recounts. Dozens of sacks of cement were also among the goods. About four of 19 kilometers of the new strabe hours under water. "The floods were allowed to delay our work for months".
In bangladesh, the storms also affected the rohingya in the refugee camps who had fled from myanmar, according to the UN refugee agency, the german branch of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
The monsoon season in sudasia usually lasts until september. Although the rain is vital for agriculture. But he also repeatedly causes serious damage. Hundreds of people are killed every year.