India: 46 Casualties Reported During Religious Festival

At least 46 people, including 37 children, drowned while participating in a religious festival in eastern India, a local government official told AFP on Thursday.

The official from the Bihar Disaster Management Authority explained that the festival participants drowned in separate incidents across the state while diving into rivers, whose water levels had risen due to recent flooding.

The official, who requested anonymity, stated that “these people ignored the dangerous rise in river and water body levels when they dove in to celebrate.”

The drowning incidents occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday in 15 districts of Bihar state during the Hindu festival of Jitiya Parva, in which mothers participate for the well-being of their children.

Search operations are still underway for the bodies of three other people, according to the same official.

Floods are common in India during the monsoon season, which lasts from July to September.

Scientists believe that climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of such events.