INDIA IS HIT BY CALAMITY: Worst flooding in 100 years

WORST FLOODS IN 100 YEARS

The worst floods in more than 100 years have left behind a trail of death and destruction in five districts of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. BBC Hindi’s Omer Farooq reports from Rajoli village in Mehbubnagar district, which has emerged as the symbol of this devastation.

The village, with a population of 15,000 and famous for its silk sari weavers, was completely flattened by the floods which hit in the dead of the night on 1 October. Almost a week later, shocked residents are yet to recover. Row after row of houses and shops turned to rubble, and kiosks were washed away and overturned by the raging flood waters from the nearby Tungabhadra river.

A stink in the air, along with mud-covered household goods, rotten grain and shop merchandise, greet you when you enter the ancient village. To get here, you pass through mud and stagnated flood waters which cover the road for almost 2 km.

Rajoli is one of more than 500 villages in Andhra Pradesh’s five districts – Kurnool, Mehbubnagar, Nalgonda, Guntur and Krishna – hit hard by the worst-ever floods in the Godavari and Tungabhadra rivers and many other small rivulets. Torrential rains over the past week have also caused floods in the upper reaches of Maharashtra and Karnataka states.