Damaging landslides have occurred as a result of heavy rainfall in Assam state in the northeast of India over the weekend.

Very unusual late monsoon rainfall has had devastating impacts on South Asia in the last few days, with many deaths from landslides and floods in both India and Nepal. Parts of Nepal recorded over 500 mm of rainfall in 48 hours.

Understanding the recent monsoon landslides in Maharashtra, India, which killed at least 100 people in July 2021.

In the last 24 hours at least 29 people have been killed by landslides triggered by intense monsoon rainfall in Mumbai, India

The start of the 2021 summer monsoon in Nepal has brought unusual levels of rainfall. So far at least 27 people have been killed in landslides

The South Asian monsoon in the time of a pandemic: the impacts of the severe Covid-19 wave in India and Nepal mean that vulnerability of landslides is likely to be high.

A new paper in the journal Earth System Dynamics suggests that future warming will drive an increase in rainfall in the Indian monsoon. This is likely to increase landslide impacts in the most seriously affected landslide region.

The first few weeks of the SW monsoon in Nepal has seen large numbers of landslides. By 20 July the number of fatal landslides had already exceeded the average annual total for the last 15 years.

Over the last few days intense monsoon rainfall in Nepal has triggered a wave of landslides that have caused extensive loss of life and damage. 

As the 2019 summer monsoon draws to a close, Planet Labs are starting to collect cloud free images of the devastating landslides in Kerala, India