Deadly Asia monsoons

This item appears on page 16 of the October 2017 issue.

As of press time, at least 1,200 people had been killed and more than 40 million people had been directly affected by the summer monsoon season of 2017 in the South Asian countries of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. 

Most of the deaths were caused by flooding or landslides, which also destroyed tens of thousands of homes as well as multiple hospitals and schools. Flooding damaged hundreds of thousands of hectares of farm and pasture land.

The monsoon season typically begins in June and lasts through September.