Hundreds of people were shifted to relief camps from low-lying areas of Kerala as flood water entered their houses with monsoon rains gaining further strength in the state.
A red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rains of over 20 cm in 24 hours, while an orange alert means very heavy rains of 6 cm to 20 cm of rain.
A red alert was declared in 8 districts of Kerala on Thursday by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) as rains continued to lash various parts of the state and disrupted the day-to-day lives of the people as roads got flooded or caved in and many got displaced from their homes to relief camps.
LIVE! Incessant rains: Red Alert in 5 Kerala districts
The IMD also issued a red alert in the same 10 districts for August 3 also.
22 bodies, 13 from Kottayam district and 9 from Idukki were recovered from various rain-hit areas while National Disaster Response Force teams continued their rescue operations.
The former IAS officer was sworn-in as Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Tourism; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The pilots have been "derostered" pending investigation, Air India Express later said in a statement.
Sixteen deaths in rain and flood-related incidents have been reported from western Maharashtra in the last seven days, while the toll in Karnataka rose to five since Sunday.
'Nothing differentiated us, neither religion nor money.' 'We were all in a crisis together and we survived together.' 'We plan to assemble on the bridge every year on the same day, to thank for giving us a second life.'
Once P V Arun from Manimala in Kerala was headline material for being recruited by the NASA. Today, he is in the news for spreading that lie
