Tornado in Bihar

This item appears on page 16 of the June 2010 issue.

Bihar and West Bengal, states in northeastern India, were ravaged by a tornado with winds of 75 mph on April 13 that killed 137 people, left more than a million homeless and flattened tens of thousands of homes. More than 200,000 homes were damaged, many the mud-and-thatch homes of farmers.

The corn crop was destroyed and stocks of rice seed were ruined. Thousands of dead livestock have fouled the waters, causing concerns of disease.