Floods trap hundreds in rural Tibet; Floods swamp India national park
by AFP Staff Writers
Shanghai (AFP) July 10, 2024
Hundreds of people were trapped in rural Tibet in recent days after heavy rainfall caused floods and landslides, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday.
At least 472 people, including local residents and tourists from outside the area, were trapped outside Chentang Township in the Shigatse area, state broadcaster CCTV said.
China is battling extreme weather across the country this summer, with the national weather agency expecting extreme heat to persist for much of the season.
Swathes of northern China have already been baked by heat waves this summer, while unseasonably torrential rains have triggered deadly floods and landslides across much of the south.
Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more frequent and intense, and China is the world’s biggest emitter.
Continuous rainfall since Saturday in Tibet had left roads damaged, and “power and communications in the area of Chentang Township was cut off”, according to CCTV.
Footage published by the broadcaster showed murky water tumbling down rocky hillsides, and large groups of people trekking along crumbled roads.
Large parts of one road appeared to have fallen into a river, while another one was covered in debris from a landslide.
CCTV said rescuers had been working for four days, and had successfully relocated 342 of the stranded people to nearby urban areas.
“Additionally, more than 130 tourists from outside this area, migrant workers and merchants remain temporarily stranded there due to road disruptions, rainy weather and insufficient physical ability to walk long distances,” CCTV said.
An emergency communications network has now been set up in the area, according to the broadcaster.
India floods swamp national park, killing six rhinos
Guwahati, India (AFP) July 9, 2024 -
Devastating floods in India’s northeast that have killed scores of people also swamped a national park drowning six threatened rhinos and other wildlife, government officials said Tuesday.
Floods have begun to ease, Assam state Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a statement, noting the “water level of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries is below the danger level in most places”.
More than 1.8 million people have been affected across 3,000 villages, as well as 72 killed since mid-May, according to state disaster officials.
Monsoon rains across South Asia from June to September offer respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies, but also bring widespread death and destruction.
The intensity of rain and floods has increased in recent years, with experts saying climate change is exacerbating the problem.
As the waters recede, the impact on wildlife from the deluge is also being seen, including in Kaziranga National Park.
“Floods have affected humans and animals alike,” Sarma said, adding officers had been “working round the clock to aid everyone”.
On Monday, Sarma posted a video on social media of a stranded rhino calf, up to its chin in water, saying he had “instructed its immediate rescue”.
Kaziranga is home to two-thirds of the world’s remaining one-horned rhinos, classified as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.
The park has 2,413 rhinos, according to a 2018 count.
Wildlife officers said six rhinos as well as scores of deer had been killed in recent days.
“Although there is higher ground for the shelter of the animals, the animals suffer when the high floods affect the park,” said a senior park official, who was not authorised to speak to the media, confirming the animal deaths.
Kaziranga, a UNESCO world heritage site, is flooded almost every year, helping replenish water supplies and the ecological balance of the park.
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