The fire incinerated the bus and nobody could be retrieved so far.
The Odisha government is preparing for Cyclone Phailin -- which is expected to hit the east coast on Saturday evening -- on a war footing.
At least nine people have been killed and 3 lakh affected by floods in Bihar as major rivers continue to overflow after crossing the danger mark at several places in the state.
Balasore district hospital looked like a war zone with the injured lying on stretchers in the corridor and rooms bursting at its seams with extra beds propped up.
The death toll in Bihar floods today mounted to 64 with over 33 lakh people spread across 13 districts affected by the deluge.
Altogether 76 people have lost their lives in floods spread over 23 districts in Bihar since June this year, State Disaster Management department secretary Vyasji said on Thursday.
The Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Authority, in a tweet, said as per the latest updates #GajaCyclone is likely to have landfall between 8 pm and 11 pm on Thursday in all probability in Nagapattinam district.
At least 10 persons were killed and up to 300 missing on Wednesday after a massive landslide triggered by monsoon rains struck central Sri Lanka, forcing authorities to deploy the army to conduct rescue operations.
Incessant showers lashed Mumbai and its neighbouring areas on Wednesday morning, leading to flooding in many low-lying areas and traffic snarls on roads.
The flood situation in Assam took a serious turn on Thursday with over 100 villages inundated and nearly 50,000 affected people so far.
The helicopter crashed near Moldi while returning after distributing relief material among the affected people, said Uttarkashi Disaster Management officer Devendra Patwal.
Since January this year, there have been 983 incidents of forest fire in the state affecting 1,292 hectares of land, they said.
Odisha is facing a morgue crunch as a large number of unclaimed dead bodies from Balasore's triple train accident, have piled up at its mortuaries.
'You are talking as if Patna has been the only place which has suffered on account of heavy rain. What happened in Mumbai and America when these places were battered by similar downpour?'
Patients and pregnant women, people out to buy essential items, and those travelling to or from railway stations, bus stops and airports will be exempted from the night curfew that kicks in at 11 pm on Monday due to rising COVID-19 cases in Delhi, according to a DDMA order.
Many parts of Cachar district's severely affected Silchar town are still waterlogged.
The death toll due to intense heatwave sweeping Telangana and Andhra Pradesh crossed the 500 figure on Monday, disaster management officials said in Hyderabad.
The commission also directed political parties to adhere to the provisions of the model code of conduct and broader guidelines on Covid-19.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday conducted an aerial survey of rain-ravaged areas of Uttarakhand to asses the damage which the state government has pegged at Rs 7,000 crore.
The downpour, which has been lashing Bihar for the past few days, is because of the Hathiya Nakshatra," he said.
In view of a persistent rise in COVID-19 cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Tuesday ordered that there will be no public celebrations in the national capital for upcoming festivals such Holi and Navaratri. Considering the rise in COVID-19 cases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) also announced that Holi celebrations, on March 28 and 29, will not be permitted in both private or public places.
The national capital, parts of which reeled under heatwave conditions for the past few days, had some relief on Wednesday with strong winds and partly cloudy skies witnessed during the day.
Rescuers pulled out more bodies from the muddy debris of disastrous landslide taking the toll to over 80.
Drought hit Bihar plans to increase the number of days of work from 100 to 150 under the rural job scheme to check migration of the poorest of poor in search of livelihood by providing employment opportunity locally.
Family members of people who committed suicide within 30 days of being diagnosed with COVID-19 will be entitled to Rs 50,000 ex-gratia assistance as per the guidelines, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The Sikkim Government has confirmed that 14 people have died so far in the flash floods that occurred in Sikkim in the early hours of Wednesday.
With COVID-19 cases and the positivity rate rising in Delhi, the district officials have started forming teams to strictly enforce the mask mandate and issue a fine of Rs 500 to violators, officials said.
Many families in the affected area are finding it hard to sever their emotional ties with their homes and move out.
'The government allowed private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients, so it should pay.'
A series of flash floods in Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh killed at least 16 people on Wednesday and damaged several residential houses, standing crops and a mini power plant, officials said.
Floodwaters surged through many parts of Pakistan's southern Sindh province on Tuesday following unprecedented rains over the past 10 days, with the deluge claiming over 200 lives and affecting an estimated 5.3 million people.
The relief and rehabilitation measures were running in full swing with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launching a drive under which over Rs 180 crore were disbursed among affected people through direct cash transfer.
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.
"Yesterday's goof-up on unlock announcement happened only due to this, and this has happened earlier also," the former chief minister said.
'We have the technical expertise, and international collaborations. We also have robust real-time data. We are a university of pandemic management. If the ministry neglects the role of NCDC, it is the loss of the country'
The toll in the killer nor'wester in Bihar rose to 54 as reports of 12 more deaths came from the 12 ravaged districts on Thursday.
A Bolero car still could not be traced, he added.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday complimented senior officials of her government for successfully pressing into service disaster management mechanism in various metro stations, market places and key street intersections following the collapse of Northern Grid.
Floods have forced people to eat rats to survive as there is nothing left to eat. M I Khan reports from Patna.
People lost their lives in the affected districts due to incidents of drowning, electrocution, house collapse and falling of trees, a disaster management department release said.
