Climate change? Desert grapples with floods

One of world's biggest solar bowls the Thar desert which basks an average of 320 days in sunshine has transformed into a trough of death and destruction after three days of downpour left it with double the rain it normally gets in a year.

The border district of Barmer is drowning under 577 mm of rainfall, which has submerged over 800 villages with an approximate population of about 20 lakh.

This is at least 300 mm more that 277 mm of rainfall that the region receives annually. The official death toll so far is 85 and likely to climb as the receding waters reveal bodies of those trapped between sand dunes.

the Times of India