My Way News - South Asian Monsoons Displace Millions

South Asian M= onsoons Displace Millions

<= img border=3D0 width=3D14 height=3D10 src=3D"SouthAsianMonsoonsDisplaceMillions_bestanden/image001.gif" align=3DabsBottom v:shapes=3D"_x0000_i1028"> Emai= l this Story

Aug 4, 7:02 AM (ET)

By BISWAJEET BANERJEE <= o:p>

(AP) Bangladeshis car= ry relief material<= /span> as they wade thr= ough floodwaters in Sirajgonj, 104 kilometers...
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LUCKNOW, India (AP) - Havoc from monsoon rains killed another = 12 people in India, including two children swept away by floods and a man <= span class=3DSpellE>attacked by a rhinoceros forced out of its inundated habitat, officials said Saturday. Helicopters dropped food to hundreds of thousands of fright= ened villagers perched on rooftops.

Vital to farmers, the annual ra= ins are a blessing and a c= urse for the subcontinent. At least 198 people have been killed in India and neighboring Bangladesh and 19 million driven from their homes in recent days, according to government figures. <= o:p>

The South Asian monsoon season runs from June = to September as the rains work their way across the subcontinent. It's always dangerous - last year<= /span> more than 1,000 people= died, most from drowning, landslides = or house collapses. <= o:p>

This year, estimates of total deaths vary wildly from a few hundred to well over 1,000.

(AP) People wade through a flooded road in Mumbai, India, Friday, A= ug. 3, 2007. Heavy monsoon rains and...
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Two villagers were killed in a house collapse and two children were swept away by flood waters in several districts of India's = northern Uttar Pradesh state. Another person died from a snake bite on a flooded road, said Surender Shrivastav, = a state official.

Helicopters dropped= food to nearly 2 million people in 2,200 villages cut off by flood waters in the worst-hit= eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh, said Umesh Sinha, the state relief commissioner, adding = that nearly 279,223 a= cres of paddy rice crops have been destroyed in the region.

On Friday<= /span>, six people drowned in northeastern Assam state. One-horned rhinos straying from the state's Kaziranga National Pa= rk killed one person and injured two others, said st= ate Revenue Minister Bhumidhar Barman.

Jehir Ali, 28, was riding a bicycle near the village of <= span class=3DSpellE>Gendheli when a rhino charged at him, said Dhiren Gogoi, a wildlife official.

"Ali fell down and was badl= y mauled by the <= span class=3DSpellE>adult rhino. He was <= span class=3DSpellE>shifted to a hospital where he died," Gogoi told The Associated Press.

(AP) People wade through floodwaters in Kalyanpur, in the northern Indian state of = Bihar, Friday, Aug....
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Seventy percent of Kaziranga Park has been flooded<= /span> by the Brahmaputra River, forcing out several rhinos. =

"Two rhinos have entered villages in the area resulting in panic among the population,= " Diganta Barbaruah, another wildlife offi= cial, said.

With hundred= s of villages submerged<= /span> across the fertile plains that stretch <= span class=3DSpellE>along the southern edge of the Himalayas= , people were taking refuge wherever they could.

Women and chi= ldren were spotted screaming for help from treetops in Uttar Pradesh. In parts of = the state, river levels rose so quickly that villagers had no= time to save any belongings.

"The gush of water was so = sudden we did not get the time to react," Vinod Kumar, a reside= nt of a flooded village in Basti district, told = Enadu TV.

(AP) Villagers row past a red flag warning people of an electric post, as they= search for drinking water...
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One woman in Uttar Pradesh <= span class=3DSpellE>who identified herself only as Savitra said she had not "eaten anything for the last two days."

Health workers= were fanning out across parts of Bangl= adesh and India to try to prevent the spread of wat= erborne diseases like <= span class=3DSpellE>diarrhea, typhoid and cholera.

In northwestern Bangladesh, farmer Rahmat Sheikh and his family = were among 2,000 people who fled their flooded village for higher ground in the Sirajganj district.

"The floods have taken away all I had," said= the 40-year-old Sheikh. "Rice paddies in the field, = two cows and my hou= se all are gone. I don't know how we will now survive."

Some 14 mill= ion people in India and 5 = million in Bangladesh have been displaced or marooned by flooding, according to government figures. A= t least 144 people have died in India and 54 more in Bangladesh.

India's Meteoro= logical Department said= unusual monsoon patterns this year have led to heavier than normal rains.

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Associated Press reporters Farid Hossai= n in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Wasbir Hussain in Gauhati contributed to this report.

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