A two-storey building collapsed in Mallital area of Nainital.

A video from Uttarakhand on Saturday showed a house collapsing due to a landslide. On Saturday morning, many areas of Nainital were hit by landslides, due to which many houses developed cracks. The cracks gradually widened and a house collapsed. In the video, the two-storey house is seen sliding from the slope and falling to the ground with a loud noise.

No one was injured in the incident as the house, which has about a dozen rooms, was vacated before it collapsed. Nearby houses in Nainital's Mallital area are also being evacuated.

Earlier this month, the state assembly was told that rain-related disasters have claimed 111 lives and affected 45,650 families in Uttarakhand this year.

Death toll due to natural disasters at 111

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Premchand Agarwal said 111 people were killed and 72 injured due to natural calamities triggered by heavy rains. The disasters also affected 45,650 families, who have been given financial assistance of Rs 30.40 crore. He was responding to a question from an opposition member in the Assembly.

Floods and landslides are common during the monsoon season and cause large-scale destruction, but experts say climate change is increasing the severity of such incidents.

Collisions in weather systems due to global warming

Scientists have attributed the torrential rains this monsoon season to the collision of weather systems caused by global warming, which has affected the Himalayan states of the country - Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Hundreds of people have died and crores of rupees have been damaged in this monsoon season.

The rainfall occurred in both the states after the convergence of the monsoon system with the western disturbance. A weather system that originates in the Mediterranean Sea and moves eastwards brings moisture-laden winds that cause winter rain and snowfall in the Himalayas.

Heavy rain in a short period

"Look at it as a collision of two powerful systems," Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the India Meteorological Department's regional centre in New Delhi, said. We have been seeing in the last few years that there is heavy rainfall for a short period of time.

The number of days of very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall per decade in India's Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and neighbouring Uttarakhand has increased from 74 in the last decade to 2011 between 2020 and 118, data from the met office shows.

The monsoon brings about 80 per cent of annual rainfall to South Asia and is crucial for both agriculture and the livelihoods of millions of people. But it also brings destruction in the form of landslides and floods every year.