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AMRITSAR, India: A thousand villages in India’s Punjab state are marooned by deadly floods, with thousands forced to seek shelter in relief camps, government authorities say.
Flooding across the northwestern state killed at least 29 people and affected over 250,000 last month, with the state’s chief minister calling it “one of the worst flood disasters in decades.”
The region is often dubbed India’s breadbasket, but more than 940 square kilometers (360 square miles) of farmland are flooded, leading to “devastating crop losses,” Punjab’s Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi on Monday assured him of the federal government’s “full support.”
Authorities have said they fear a “huge loss of livestock,” the full extent of which will only be clear when the waters recede, according to a bulletin issued by the state authorities late Monday.
India’s army and disaster teams have carried out vast rescue operations, deploying more than 1,000 boats and 30 helicopters to rescue the stranded or supply food.
“The most important thing is to save the lives of people and helpless animals trapped in the water,” Mann said in a statement.
Rivers in the region cross into Pakistan, where floodwater has also engulfed swathes of land.
Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season in the subcontinent, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency, severity and impact.
Northwest India has seen rainfall surge by more than a third on average from June to September, according to the national weather department.
In the capital Delhi, relentless rains have swollen the Yamuna river — which breached its danger mark on Tuesday, inundating several areas and creating traffic snarl-ups lasting for hours.
Deadly floods triggered by record-breaking rain also killed dozens in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region last month.

BEIJING: Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday that their countries’ ties were at an “unprecedented level” during talks in Beijing ahead of a massive military parade.
World leaders including North Korea’s Kim Jong Un are gathering in China’s capital for the showcase of Beijing’s might on Wednesday.
“Our close communication reflects the strategic nature of Russian-Chinese ties, which are currently at an unprecedented level,” Putin told Xi in remarks on a pooled live feed.
In a nod to cooperation between the two countries during the war, Putin said “we were always together then, and we remain together now.”
Xi has embarked on a flurry of diplomatic meetings this week, including attendance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the northern city of Tianjin — a forum that China sees as an alternative to Western-dominated international cooperation.
The military parade on Wednesday marks 80 years since the end of World War II and will be attended by around two dozen world leaders.


The Chinese and Russian leaders criticized Western governments during the summit on Monday, where Xi slammed “bullying behavior” from certain countries — a veiled reference to the United States, while Putin defended Russia’s Ukraine offensive and blamed the West for triggering the conflict.
“China-Russia relations have withstood the test of international changes,” Xi told Putin on Tuesday.
Xi added that Beijing was willing to work with Moscow to “promote the construction of a more just and reasonable global governance system.”
Moscow and Beijing declared a “no limits partnership” shortly before Putin ordered Russia’s Ukraine offensive in February 2022. The expanded military and trade ties since have troubled the West.
China has never denounced Russia’s war nor called for it to withdraw its troops, and many of Ukraine’s allies believe that Beijing has provided support to Moscow.
It insists it is a neutral party, regularly calling for an end to the fighting while also accusing Western countries of prolonging the conflict by arming Ukraine.
Xi and Putin are in regular contact and held a phone call last month, with the Chinese leader saying he was pleased to see Moscow and Washington improving their relations.
In May, Xi visited Moscow for Russia’s May 9 celebrations of the World War II defeat of the Nazis.
China and Russia “have continued to deepen political mutual trust and strategic cooperation... and injected valuable stability and positive energy into an international situation full of interwoven turmoil,” Xi said during his visit in May.