'The protection of secrecy and anonymity gets lost with this linking.'
Forty-one Border Road Organisation labourers working to clear snow near the high altitude border village of Mana in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district were trapped under an avalanche on Friday.
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KPCB) is on high alert after a Liberian vessel carrying hazardous cargo sank off the Kerala coast. While no calcium carbide containers have washed ashore yet, a thin layer of oil spill has been detected. The KPCB is working to contain the spill and prevent it from reaching the shore, but rough conditions at sea have hampered efforts to spray dispersants. The board is also taking steps to prevent the oil from reaching the Ashtamudi and Vembanad lakes.
How to conduct the mock exercise with active public participation of people was discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan. Top civil and police officers of the country participated in the meeting, official sources said.
Containers from a Liberian cargo ship that sank off the Kerala coast have started washing ashore, prompting authorities to urge the public to stay away from them. The ship carried 13 hazardous cargos, including calcium carbide, which reacts with seawater to release highly flammable acetylene gas. The Indian Coast Guard is leading pollution response efforts and monitoring the spread of the oil slick.
The India meteorological department (IMD) on Wednesday evening issued a red alert for Mumbai and its neighbouring districts, predicting "extremely heavy rainfall".
Singapore-based Alert Disaster Control, one of the largest disaster management companies in the oil and gas sector, has already joined the team of experts from ONGC and OIL, reports Shine Jacob.
The trial incineration of 10 tonnes of waste from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, responsible for the 1984 gas tragedy, began on Friday afternoon in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The process, ordered by the Madhya Pradesh High Court, is expected to take 72 hours to complete. The waste includes soil, reactor residues, pesticide residues, and other materials. The State Pollution Control Board says the chemicals in the waste have become "almost negligible" and there is no presence of methyl isocyanate gas. The incineration process is being monitored by the Pollution Control Board and broadcast live.
The unloading of 337 tonnes of hazardous waste from the defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal began at an incineration unit in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The exercise, which commenced amid protests from locals concerned about its impact on health and environment, is being carried out following safety regulations. The waste, comprising soil, reactor residues, pesticide remnants, and other materials, has been transported from Bhopal to Pithampur for disposal. The Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board has asserted that the chemical effects of certain substances in the waste have diminished. The local administration has launched an awareness campaign to address concerns regarding the disposal process.
Telecom service providers and the Maha Kumbh Mela administration are on their toes to ensure smooth connectivity at the grand event set to witness record teledensity.
Kerala is the only state, other than West Bengal (2001 and 2007), in India to have reported Nipah virus cases. Kerala is the only state, other than West Bengal (2001 and 2007), in India to have reported Nipah virus cases. The previous outbreaks in the state were in May 2018, June 2019 and September 2021. This explains the anticipation and readiness this year, reports Shine Jacob.
The first round of trial incineration of 10 tonnes of waste connected to the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy has begun in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, amid tight security. The Supreme Court refused to intervene in the MP High Court's order directing the transfer and disposal of waste at a private company-operated plant in Pithampur. The trial incineration is being conducted in the presence of scientists from the central and state pollution control boards. Protesters have expressed apprehensions about harm to the human population and environment due to the disposal of this waste, but the state government has rejected these concerns, saying that solid arrangements are in place for safe disposal.
Nine more people have died as heavy rains lashed Uttar Pradesh for the third day, taking the death toll to 28, while a red alert has been sounded on Tuesday in six districts including the worst-hit Barabanki and Gonda.
Intermittent, widespread rains lashed Chennai and other regions of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday and the India meteorological department said the low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal has turned into a well-marked low pressure area and it is likely to become a depression.
A 22-year-old person was killed and another one injured on Thursday after a tree fell on their hut in Mumbai as moderate to heavy rains lashed the city and its suburbs in the last 24 hours, officials said.
IMD issued red alerts for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Idukki districts.
As Odisha and West Bengal are bracing for a severe cyclonic storm, governments of both states started evacuating people and while deciding to close educational institutions in vulnerable areas.
The bus carrying a total of 38 passengers was on its way from Thane to Ahmednagar when it fell into the 400-feet Malshej ravines near Tokawade in the morning, an officer in the disaster control management room said.
Forty years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, 377 tons of hazardous waste has been shifted from the defunct Union Carbide factory for its disposal, an official said.
The Madhya Pradesh high court in Jabalpur on Monday directed the state government to take steps within six weeks for disposal of Bhopal-based Union Carbide's 337 tonnes of hazardous waste as per safety protocols, while restraining the media from publishing any fake news on the same.
The Uttar Pradesh government is expecting over 35 crore pilgrims to attend the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, a significant increase from the 24 crore who attended the 2019 Kumbh Mela. The event, which will take place over 45 days, will feature extensive security and sanitation measures, as well as a digital component. The state government has allocated Rs 7,000 crore for the event.
Multiple incidents of landslide, wall and bridge collapse were reported in Thane city and neighbouring Palghar district in Maharashtra which were lashed by heavy rains on Wednesday, officials said.
In Chamoli district, a flood-like situation has developed along the banks of a dozen rivers, including Alaknanda and its tributaries Pindar, Nandakini and Birhi.
The weather office has forecast intense spells of rain at isolated places in Nainital, Champawat, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Dehradun, Tehri and Pauri districts on Sunday.
Five people were killed and about 50 missing following several incidents of cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh where rains washed away many houses, bridges and roads, officials said on Thursday.
The work to remove 377 metric tonnes of hazardous waste from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in Bhopal has begun. The waste will be transported to an incineration site in Pithampur near Indore, around 250 km from Bhopal. The move comes after the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered the authorities to clear the site, 40 years after the deadly gas leak that killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands with health problems.
We the people are left in the wind, waiting on the whims of an unengaged president and an oligarch with a nearly bottomless wallet, observes Sree Sreenivasan.
The IMD also issued a red alert in the same 10 districts for August 3 also.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
The death toll in the devastating landslides in Kerala's Wayanad district rose to 167 on Wednesday, while 191 were missing even as the rescue teams intensified efforts to find survivors trapped under the debris on the second day of the search operations.
As Cyclone Dana barrels toward the coasts of Odisha, threatening to impact nearly half of the state's population, the government is racing against time to execute a massive evacuation plan aimed at relocating about 10 lakh people in several coastal districts to safety. In West Bengal, the cyclone is set to bring heavy rainfall in several southern West Bengal districts, including Kolkata, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said.
In view of the widespread rains and 'red alert' for extremely heavy showers issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for several districts, control rooms are working round the clock to monitor the situation and help stranded people, he said.
Heavy casualties were feared as a bus carrying around 45-50 members of a marriage party fell into a gorge in the Bironkhal area of Uttarakhand's Pauri district on Tuesday evening, the disaster control room in Pauri said.
The airport, being developed by the Adani Group, is expected to start commercial operations early next year.
Heavy rains continued to lash several parts of Kerala on Thursday, leading to waterlogging in the low-lying areas of major cities, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Thrissur.
An old bridge across Kali river in Uttara Kannada district collapsed in the small hours of Wednesday, resulting in heavy traffic along National Highway 66, connecting Goa to Karnataka.
More than a dozen Mountain Rescue Teams assisted thousands of pilgrims during this year's Amarnath pilgrimage in the south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said on Monday, as the annual yatra concluded with more than 5.10 lakh pilgrims offering prayers at the cave shrine.
The intention of the bomb hoax emails received by nearly 200 Delhi schools was to 'create mass panic and disturb public order', the Delhi Police says in a first information report (FIR) registered by its Special Cell.
Wing Commander Raveendran and flight steward Sargeant Iyer, though shaken and injured, managed to open the rear door of the aircraft and shouted for Prime Minister Morarji Desai and the passengers in the forward cabin to exit in haste since they suspected that fire would engulf the aircraft.
According to the information received from the disaster control room yesterday, one dead body was recovered from Srinagar Chauras and one from Kirti Nagar. Of the 206 missing, 70 bodies and 29 human organs have been recovered so far.
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