Heavy downpours and floods have frequently been causing havoc in some states of India and Pakistan since the last two months.

Normal life has been severely disrupted in many parts of north India, including Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, due to unprecedented rainfall over the past few days. 

The continuous rainfall in the region has led to flash floods, cloudbursts, landslides and waterlogging.

The latest forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) suggests that most regions in the country will get normal to above-normal rainfall in September.  

A thousand villages in India's Punjab state are marooned by deadly floods, with thousands forced to seek shelter in relief camps, government authorities said on Tuesday.

According to official data, a total of 1312 villages have been impacted by floods across Punjab. At least 6,582 people have been shifted to 122 relief camps.  

Flooding across the northwestern state killed at least 29 people and affected over 250,000 last month, with the state's chief minister calling it "one of the worst flood disasters in decades".       

The region is often dubbed India's breadbasket, but more than 940 square kilometres (360 square miles) of farmland are flooded, leading to "devastating crop losses", Punjab's Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann wrote in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to Indian officials, more than 1,200 people have been killed in monsoon-related incidents in India since June.
 
Rivers in the region cross into Pakistan, where floodwater has also engulfed swathes of land.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of Pakistan has released updated data on human and financial losses caused by recent rains and floods across the country, reporting a death toll of 881 and 1,176 injuries so far.

According to the NDMA, Punjab remains the hardest-hit province, where 223 people have lost their lives and 648 sustained injuries. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, rains and related incidents have killed 48 and injured 359, while Sindh has reported 58 deaths and 78 injuries.

The NDMA also reported widespread destruction of infrastructure, with 8,206 houses damaged and 6,180 livestock lost due to floods and heavy rains.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director General (DG) Irfan Ali Kathia predicted that floodwaters would accumulate at Panjnad on 5 September, though at lower levels than earlier estimates. 

So far, more than 2.4 million people have been affected, with over 900,000 people and 600,000 animals relocated to safe areas in Punjab, he said.