Western India's monsoon death toll close to 200

MUMBAI • Rescuers in western India waded through waist-deep mud to reach injured residents and start a massive clean-up after heavy monsoon rain triggered landslides and floods that killed over 198 people.

India's western coast was hit by severe rainstorms over several days, with a quarter of a million people evacuated from their homes in three states and power cut across vast areas.

Experts say climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of the annual deluge, which is critical to replenishing rivers and groundwater, but also causes death and destruction.

"The focus has now shifted to evacuating the injured and restoring electricity as water levels recede," a National Disaster Response Force spokesman said.

In the worst-hit state of Maharashtra, where the death toll rose to 149 on Sunday, officials said search operations were halted in hillside village Taliye, south-east of Mumbai.

Rescuers have found 53 bodies in the village so far, with 17 people still missing, after a large landslide washed away people and homes last Thursday.

In the neighbouring district of Satara, 29 people were killed in multiple landslides.

And in Chiplun, 24 hours of uninterrupted rain caused water levels to rise by nearly 6m last Thursday.

On Sunday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray described what happened in that district as "unimaginable".

A shopkeeper in Chiplun told Indian broadcaster NDTV: "The water level reached the ceiling of my shop... We've seen floods before in 1965 and 2005, but this was worse than before."

Neighbouring state Goa's Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the floods were the worst since 1982.

Further south in Karnataka state, nine people died in flooding and four others were missing, officials said. The authorities were trying to restore power supply.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE