The annual monsoons in South Asia have been particularly heavy this summer, and at least 41 million people have been directly affected by landslides and flooding in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. More than 1,000 people have died from the rainstorms over the past few weeks, including at least 140 in Bangladesh, at least 143 in Nepal, and 850 or more in six states in India, according to Reuters' tally. After weeks of heavy rains in northern and eastern India, the torrential rains shifted to Mumbai over the weekend, causing heavy flooding and disruptions in India's financial capital on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"This is the severest flooding in a number of years," Francis Markus, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told The New York Times from Nepal's capital. Many of those killed or whose homes and farms were destroyed are among the region's poorest. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew over Bihar state last weekend, pledging millions of dollars in assistance, but "in Nepal and Bangladesh, the government simply doesn't have the resources," American Red Cross official Jono Anzalone tells NPR.
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