43 people killed in landslides in northern India

(August 12, 2009) Landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 43 people in three remote villages in northern India, a police official said. Twenty bodies were pulled from the debris Sunday after the landslide buried the villages in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state a day earlier, said S.M. Shamim, a paramilitary force commander. He said 43 people «were buried alive under the debris. » Police and volunteers were digging through mud and rocks Sunday to recover the bodies of 23 others, he said. Pithoragarh, in the Himalayan foothills, is about 310 miles (500 kilometres) northeast of the Indian capital, New Delhi. Extensive deforestation has made the region prone to landslides during monsoon rains.