Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
Relentless downpours on Tuesday deepened India’s monsoon havoc, unleashing landslides, flash floods and waterlogging that claimed lives, displaced thousands and wrecked infrastructure, agriculture and livelihoods across several states.
Himachal Pradesh suffered the most. In Mandi district, torrential downpours triggered massive floods that submerged the local bus stand, swept away vehicles and left roads caked in mud and debris.
A house collapse in Bragta village killed two women and a child, while one person remains missing. Officials said two others were rescued and shifted to hospital with serious injuries.
“Three bodies have been recovered,” said Deputy Commissioner Apoorv Devgan, as rescue teams scrambled to reach cut-off areas.
Shimla received 141 mm of rainfall in just 12 hours since Monday evening; unleashing fresh landslides that buried vehicles near Himland in the city centre and blocked the main circular road.
The disruption left commuters stranded and forced schoolchildren to wade through knee-deep slush.
State figures show 46 cloudbursts, 97 flash floods and 140 landslides since June, leaving 350 people dead and inflicting an estimated Rs 4,504 crore in losses.
Entire stretches of highway have caved in, orchards have been washed away, and power and water supply lines have been repeatedly severed.
The crisis has alarmed the Supreme Court, which on Monday said that unregulated construction, deforestation and quarrying risked wiping the state off India’s map.
“If unchecked, Himachal could vanish in thin air,” the bench observed in a suo motu hearing on the ecological imbalance.
The court is set to deliver its order on 23 September.
In Maharashtra, three people were killed and more than 120 evacuated in the last 24 hours as rivers swelled and low-lying villages flooded.
Marathwada bore the heaviest blow, with five districts receiving extreme rainfall. Beed topped the chart with 143.7 mm in 24 hours, followed by Nanded (131.6 mm) and Jalna (121.4 mm).
The IMD has forecast some respite in Maharashtra from Wednesday, with rainfall activity expected to decline across Marathwada, Vidarbha and north Maharashtra.
Mumbai, accustomed to monsoon chaos, grounded to a halt on Monday. Waterlogging crippled traffic during the office rush hour, while suburban rail services ran behind schedule as tracks at Dadar, Kurla and Bandra went under water.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for three hours before scaling it down to orange as the downpour eased.
Public transport woes deepened when a monorail train stalled between Antop Hill and GTBN due to a technical snag, leaving 17 passengers trapped.
Rescue workers evacuated them safely, but it was the second such incident in less than a month, raising questions about maintenance of Mumbai’s fragile infrastructure.
The Assam government on Tuesday appealed to residents to avoid non-essential travel as intense showers lashed several districts overnight. Localities across Guwahati and other towns reported knee-deep waterlogging, while the IMD warned of “very heavy” rainfall over the next three days.
Jharkhand too is on edge. A cyclonic circulation over the Bay of Bengal and northeast Bangladesh has triggered widespread rainfall across the state. Ranchi has recorded 40.8 mm of rain in 24 hours, with steady showers continuing since Sunday.
The IMD has issued an orange alert for Giridih, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara and Dhanbad, while other districts remain under a yellow watch. Meteorologists said heavy rainfall would persist until Wednesday before gradually easing.
In southern India, Hyderabad was battered by a cloudburst on Sunday evening that left arterial roads submerged and commuters stuck in hours-long traffic jams. At least two people are feared washed away in storm drains.
Disaster management personnel, assisted by traffic police and municipal workers, pumped water out of inundated streets through the night. Officials warned that poorly drained areas remain vulnerable to fresh flooding if rains intensify.
The IMD has said rainfall began retreating from northwest India on 14 September, three days ahead of schedule.
In Punjab, the monsoon brought the worst floods in decades earlier this year, submerging farmland and destroying standing paddy. In Himachal, apple orchards have been devastated. In Maharashtra, cotton and soybean fields are waterlogged, sparking fears of price spikes in the months ahead.
Economists warn that the losses will weigh on rural incomes and supply chains.
