46 people drown during Hindu festival in India: govt official

At least 46 people, including 37 children, have drowned while celebrating a Hindu festival in eastern India, a local government official told AFP on Thursday. The victims drowned in separate incidents in Bihar state while ritually bathing in rivers and ponds swollen by recent flooding, an official from the Bihar Disaster Management Department told AFP.

"People ignored dangerous water levels in rivers as well as ponds while bathing to celebrate this festival," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. The drownings occurred from Tuesday across 15 districts of Bihar state as devotees marked the Jitiya Parv Hindu festival, observed by mothers for the wellbeing of their children.

Authorities were still working to recover three other bodies, the official said. Jitiya Parv runs over several days and is also observed in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand states, and in parts of Nepal's southern plains.  The Bihar state government has announced compensation for each of the victims' families, the government official said. 

Last year local media reported 22 people drowned during a 24-hour period in Bihar, most while marking the same festival. Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites.

At least 116 people were crushed to death in July at an overcrowded Hindu religious gathering in Uttar Pradesh state, the worst such tragedy in more than a decade. India is hit by torrential rains and flash floods each year during the June-September monsoon season. The monsoon is vital for agriculture, and therefore for the livelihoods of millions of farmers.

But it is also responsible for widespread destruction each year in the form of landslides and floods that kill hundreds of people across South Asia. More than 200 people were killed in the southern Indian state of Kerala in July when torrential monsoon downpours caused landslides that buried tea plantations under tonnes of rock and soil.

Experts say climate change is increasing the number of extreme weather events around the world, with damming, deforestation and development projects in India exacerbating the human toll. A 2021 study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research tracking monsoon shifts from the mid-20th century suggested that it was becoming stronger and more erratic.