
© AP Photo/Anupam NathA homeless man tries to protect himself from rain with plastic sheets as he sits in a pavement in New Delhi, India, Sunday, Sept.19, 2010. Monsoon rains are active this year in most parts of India.
Heavy monsoon rains and landslides swept the hilly areas of northern India over the weekend, killing at least 47 people, officials said today.
Twenty-four people died yesterday as falling boulders crushed their homes in three villages in Almorah district in Uttrakhand state, said Prashant Kumar Tamta, a state government spokesman.
Another 23 people were either swept away by floodwaters or died when homes collapsed in landslides in Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Uttarkashi regions of state on Saturday and yesterday, Mr Tamta told The Associated Press.
Rains continued to lash the region today, threatening dozens of villages near the Tehri Dam whose water level was nearing the danger level.
The area is 250 miles (400km) south-west of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.
On Friday, a boat carrying mostly schoolchildren capsized in a flooded river near Faizabad, a town in Uttar Pradesh state, drowning 15 people, said Surendra Srivastava, a police spokesman.
The annual monsoon season from June to October brings rains which are vital to agriculture in India.
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UPDATE:
State of emergency declared in Brasilia due to drought
September 21, 2010
An unprecedented drought has prompted the imposition of a state of emergency in Brazil's capital Brasilia. The last time it rained in the city 117 day ago.
This is the reason why wildfires have become more frequent in the region. A fire ravaged 10,000 hectares of vegetation in the National City Park last weekend.
The water level in the artificial Lake Paranoa has dropped to the permissible minimum.The city has acquired a different look because of burnt-out lawns and flowerbeds. The nearby farmsteads expect to reap only half their usual harvest size due to the lack of water.