Army moves thousands of stranded residents in Tamil Nadu after heaviest rains in more than a century as death toll reaches 269

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Indian soldiers are moving thousands of residents from their homes in the southern city of Chennai as the number dead from flooding rose to 269.

More than 3 million people have been cut off from basic services. The floods have also hampered rescue efforts by the army, which has picked up 18,000 people from rooftops and outlying villages.

With more rain forecast, the military intensified efforts on Thursday to reach people trapped in inundated parts of India’s fourth most populous city.

Chennai saw only light rain on Thursday, but water levels remained high after the heaviest downpour in more than a century. A surge caused by a release from a brimming reservoir swamped low-lying areas of the city this week.

Sudha Raman Murthy, who has two teenage daughters, said: “We live in a city, expecting that we will have access to basic facilities. But today, we have no drinking water, no fresh food and no control over our lives.” City authorities were deploying bulldozers and bags of concrete to repair collapsed roads and bridges.

Train services and flights to Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, were washed out and the navy has pressed fishing boats into service to move people from the worst-hit suburbs to temples, schools and wedding halls.

Prime minister Narendra Modi, who has blamed climate change for the deluge, travelled to Chennai to see the rescue effort. “The government will stand by the people of Tamil Nadu in their hour of need,” Modi told reporters, promising £100m for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The country’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, told parliament: “Chennai has become a small island. This is unprecedented.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People and vehicles wade through floodwaters. Photograph: EPA

Modi, who swept into power in elections last year, has just returned from Paris where he told world leaders at the COP21 climate change conference that developed nations needed to help poorer ones to bring down carbon emissions without harming the prospects of hundreds of millions of poor people around the world.

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India, the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has emerged as a key force in the negotiations.

The nation of 1.3 billion people has taken a hard line, pledging to increase carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions more slowly than the economy grows. India’s emissions per person are currently 1.7 metric tons a year, compared with nearly 17 in the US and more than 7 in both China and the EU. Significant economic and population growth are predicted in coming decades.

Many Indian cities are already suffering acute pollution; frequent floods, tsunamis, storms and other extreme weather events have underlined the possible consequences for the emerging economic power from climate change.

The floods in Chennai, a major manufacturing and service industry hub, have exacted a financial cost, too. Assocham, an industry lobby, estimated that economic losses from the floods could exceed £1.5bn.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A flood-affected area of Chennai.

After carmakers and IT outsourcing firms suspended operations on Wednesday, state-run Chennai Petroleum shut down its oil refinery because of the flooding. The refinery normally outputs 210,000 barrels per day.



As much as 345mm (14in) of rain fell over 24 hours earlier this week.

Soldiers set up 25 temporary shelters and community kitchens and installed portable toilets. “We will have to resurrect an entire city,” said Abhijit Shaw, an army officer who was setting up a makeshift maternity ward in a government building. A senior federal official said more than 1,000 people had been critically injured and have been taken to government hospitals by paramilitary forces.

Additional rainfall of 100mm to 200mm (4-8in) was predicted from Thursday until Sunday, keeping the situation critical.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People are rescued from floodwaters in Chennai. Photograph: EPA

The federal government also pledged an additional £94m in immediate relief and began to assess losses to life and property. Experts said haphazard construction, faulty drainage and a build-up of rubbish had contributed to the disaster. “Chennai is stinking and it is shocking to see how it has collapsed in the last 48 hours,” said Anant Raghav, a professor at the University of Madras.

More than 5,000 houses were under water, with many people still trapped on rooftops. Others crowded in relief camps. About 30 families have been sleeping rough under a flyover in central Chennai for the past week after their huts and small concrete houses were washed away.

Seema Agarwal, from the central district of Alwarpet, said she had seen many angry people queuing at bus stops to leave town. “There are people who haven’t eaten for days,” she said. “They have seen their possessions float away from the house. Food, clothes – all gone.” The cost of basic foodstuffs – such as milk and tomatoes – has soared.

In Paris, Modi announced £20m of investments in solar energy, and argued for a deal that would allow India to continue to grow its economy with coal and fossil fuels for many years.

India is arguing that while all countries should work towards reducing emissions, those which industrialised first and whose emissions led to climate change, such as the US, Britain and Germany, should cut the most and help pay vulnerable countries to adapt.