95 dead in floods in southern, western states; red alert on for Kerala

Last year, Kerala was hit by one of its worst floods in one hundred years

The death toll from floods in Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra rose to 95, official figures showed on Saturday, as heavy rain and landslides forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes.

Seasonal monsoon rain from June to September are a crucial lifeline for agrarian society, delivering 70 per cent of the country’s rainfall, but they also bring in their wake death and destruction every year.

Some 42 people died in southwestern Kerala and over 100,000 affected people have been evacuated, the central government’s disaster management cell said, after 80 landslides hit the state in two days.

The state planned to open the gates