At least 10 people including a four-year-old child have died in floods and landslides this week after unusually heavy rains pummelled several parts of India, as forecasters warned on Wednesday of more deluges.
Experts say extreme weather around the world is being driven by climate change, made worse in South Asia by damming, deforestation and over-the-top development projects.
The Indian Meteorological Department has warned of extreme weather conditions, with a heatwave in northern parts of the country recently triggering water shortages and power cuts.
The department simultaneously warned of heavy rainfall in several other areas, including Assam and other northeastern states, and Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala in the south.
A seasonally unusual deluge ahead of the annual monsoon in the northeastern state of Assam has left at least eight people dead and displaced more than 400,000 as of Wednesday.
Four of the victims were killed when their house was buried in a remote village in Dima Hasao district, where landslides undermined railway lines in several areas, making it difficult for authorities to send relief material.
One train was pushed off the tracks by muddy debris from surrounding hills.
The Indian Army, which has been brought in for rescue operations, said in a statement that it had rescued around 300 villagers as of Wednesday.
In Karnataka in southern India, at least two people were found dead late Tuesday, according to media reports.
The labourers had entered a pipeline construction site in Bengaluru when it started to rain but could not escape as the water level increased, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, More than 500,000 people have fled their homes in India's northeastern state of Assam to escape heavy floods triggered by pre-monsoon rains that drowned seven, authorities said on Wednesday, as they warned the situation could worsen.
One of the world's largest rivers, the Brahmaputra, which flows into India and Bangladesh from Tibet, burst its banks in Assam over the last three days, inundating more than 1,500 villages.
Torrential rains lashed most of the rugged state, and the downpour continued on Wednesday, with more forecast over the next two days.
"More than 500,000 people have been affected, with the flood situation turning critical by the hour," Assam's water resources minister, Pijush Hazarika, told Reuters, adding that the seven drowned in separate incidents during the last three days.
Soldiers of the Indian army retrieved more than 2,000 people trapped in the district of Hojai in a rescue effort that continues, the state's health minister, Keshab Mahanta, said.
Water levels in the Brahmaputra were expected to rise further, national authorities said.
"The situation remains extremely grave in the worst-hit Dima Hasao district, with both rail and road links snapped due to flooding and landslides," said Assam's revenue minister, Jogen Mohan, who is overseeing relief efforts there.
Cities elsewhere in India, notably the capital, New Delhi, are broiling in a heatwave.
