GUWAHATI, India – A landslide triggered by heavy rains has killed at least 14 people and around 30 are missing in northeastern India, officials said Thursday.
Rescue teams, police and residents are trying to save victims in Noney, a town near Imphal, the capital of the state of Manipur.
Seven of the confirmed victims were soldiers. Five employees of India’s rail network are among the missing.
A railway project is under construction in the area, and the army has been deployed to protect it from rebels active in the area. Decades of insurgency have called for the creation of separate homelands for ethnic and tribal groups.
Three weeks of continued rains have wreaked havoc in northeastern India, which includes eight states and 45 million people, and in neighboring Bangladesh.
Around 200 people have lost their lives in the state, including in Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Sikkim, and 42 more in Bangladesh since May 17. Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes.
Scientists say climate change played a role in the early and unexpected rains that caused the unprecedented flooding. Monsoon rains usually arrive in early June in South Asia, but this year heavy rains fell in northeastern India and Bangladesh from early March.
With rising global temperatures, experts say, monsoons are becoming more variable, meaning the rain that normally falls throughout the season falls for shorter periods.
