At least 46 people have drowned, most of them children, while bathing in rivers and ponds swollen by recent floods, during the observance of a Hindu religious festival celebrated by millions in India. The dead include 37 children and seven women who drowned in the eastern state of Bihar in scattered incidents across 15 districts, authorities said on Thursday. Devotees were celebrating the annual festival of Jivitputrika Vrat, during which women fast for 24 hours and offer prayers for the wellbeing of their children. They also travel to rivers and ponds in their neighbourhood to bathe, sometimes accompanied by their children. The Bihar state government announced compensation of 400,000 rupees (US$4,784) for the families of each of the deceased. Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites. Last year local media reported 22 people drowned during a 24-hour period in Bihar, most while marking the same festival. At least 116 people were crushed to death in July at an overcrowded Hindu religious gathering in Uttar Pradesh state, the worst such tragedy in more than a decade. India is hit by torrential rains and flash floods each year during the June-September monsoon season. The monsoon is vital for agriculture, and therefore for the livelihoods of millions of farmers. But it is also responsible for widespread destruction each year in the form of landslides and floods that kill hundreds of people across South Asia. More than 200 people were killed in the southern Indian state of Kerala in July when torrential monsoon downpours caused landslides that buried tea plantations under tonnes of rock and soil. India’s monsoon rains started retreating from the north-west of the country earlier this week, nearly a week later than normal, the state-run India Meteorological Department said. Experts say climate change is increasing the number of extreme weather events around the world, with damming, deforestation and development projects in India exacerbating the human toll.