Nine dead after landslide hits Manipur's Tamenglong

Imphal, July 11: Around nine people were killed after landslide due to incessant rains hits Manipur's Tamenglong on Wednesday. Some houses were collapsed at New Salem Village at Tamenglong District Headquarters at the wee hours today. The incidents took place between 2.30 am to 3.00 am at Tamenglong town, police said.

Rescue operations are on with the help of the district administration and state police, a police officer said, adding poor accessibility of the area was causing hindrance to the operations. Unofficial reports said the victims were mostly children.

The nationwide rainfall deficit in the season stands at 9%, with the monsoon 16% below normal in the first 10 days of July - a shortfall that has led to sluggish pace of kharif sowing.

UP and Gujarat have received just about half the normal rainfall so far, while deficits have opened up in east and northeast India. The south and many parts of central India though have been receiving bountiful rains. But with the monsoon season in a crucial phase agriculturally - the maximum kharif crop sowing takes places in July - a third of the 36 meteorological subdivisions in the country show deficient rainfall.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials attribute the lower­than­expected monsoon so far to a lack of activity in the Bay of Bengal.