Unseasonal rainstorm kills at least 42, injures dozens in eastern India’s Bihar state

PATNA, India – An unseasonal storm with heavy rain and hail killed at least 42 people, injured more than a hundred and caused heavy damage to the winter wheat crop in eastern India, officials said Wednesday.

Most of the deaths were caused Tuesday night by tin roofs that were blown off of poor people’s huts by winds reaching 65 kilometres per hour (40 miles per hour) in northeastern parts of Bihar state, meteorologist R.K. Giri said. The storm subsided before daybreak.

Nitish Kumar, the state’s top elected official, visited some of the worst-hit areas and said 30 deaths were reported in Purnea, seven in Madhepura and the rest in Madhubani and other districts.

Thousands of poor people have become homeless as a result of the storm, he said.

Kumar said the storm also badly damaged mango and lychee crops.

Authorities launched relief efforts in 10 districts hit by the storm. The area is about 360 kilometres (225 miles) northeast of Patna, the state capital.

Unseasonal rain and hailstorms in March destroyed large areas of farmland in northern and western India, leading dozens of debt-ridden farmers to kill themselves.

On Wednesday, a man at a farmers’ rally in the Indian capital climbed a tree and hanged himself with a white scarf, according to images broadcast by the New Delhi Television channel. Some volunteers of the Aam Admi Party, the rally organizers, tried to save him by untying the noose and rushing him to a hospital.

However, he was declared dead at the hospital, said S. Saxena, an official of the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

“I am the son of a farmer. He threw me out of home because of damage to the crop. I have three children. I don’t have the money to feed my children. Hence, I want to commit suicide,” said a handwritten note recovered from the spot. Police said the dead man was from Dausa, a town in western Rajasthan state.

The rally attended by about 1,500 people was against changes to the Land Acquisition Act introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. Critics say the changes would make it easier for businesses and the government to buy land and that may disadvantage farmers.

In northern Uttar Pradesh state, more than three dozen farmers took their own lives, according to the state’s government. The largely agrarian state — India’s most populous, with 210 million people — declared a state of emergency to seek federal compensation.