The Kumaon region, under which Nainital falls, has been the worst hit by the rains which began Sunday night, killing at least 46 people in the state as houses collapsed and bridges were washed away by swollen rivers.
The body, located 200 feet away from the bottom of the mine, was brought out using the Indian Navy's underwater remotely operated vehicle and an National Disaster Response Force boat on Wednesday, said operations spokesman R Susngi.
The two western states, already battling a raging pandemic, which has put their health infrastructure under severe strain, opened new fronts to tackle the fallout of the storm which is expected to make a landfall close to Mumbai on Wednesday. They are likely to be impacted most by the cyclone.
The state government has declared a holiday on Wednesday and Thursday for all private institutions, offices, non-essential services within Outer Ring Road here in view of rains.
The National Disaster Response Force, the Air Force and teams of other agencies have been pressed into service and they have so far rescued 214 stranded people. Over 6,200 people in the region have been shifted to safer places. Ten state highways and many roads have also been damaged.
After undertaking rescue operation in the flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir, the National Disaster Response Force is now focusing on relief operations and had deployed 'boat hospitals' in water logged areas to provide health care facilities to the stranded people.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde led the nation in paying tributes to the twenty bravehearts, who died in Tuesday's chopper crash while rescuing stranded people in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
The incident took place around 7.15 pm on Saturday, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, who visited the spot near Kanthanchavadi, told reporters.
An estimated 1.5 lakh people are being shifted from low-lying coastal areas in Gujarat while 54 teams of the NDRF and SDRF remained deployed on Sunday in view of the India Meteorological Department's (IMD) warning that the very severe cyclonic storm Tauktae will reach the state coast on Monday evening and cross it on early Tuesday morning.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray through video conference and took stock of the state's preparedness to tackle any eventuality, the latter's office said. 10 units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in vulnerable districts, while six others have been kept on a stand-by, officials said.
The body of the trapped miner was spotted on January 16 and efforts were on to pull it out of the shaft of the coal mine filled with water.
Babu R was trapped in a mountain gorge without food or water for two days till the Indian Army rescued him in a daring mission.
Very heavy rains are expected over north Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim in the next 48 hours, with cyclonic storm Phailin now closer to the Chattisgarh-Odisha border, the National Disaster Management Authority has said.
The maximum death toll has been reported from Idukki district, where 43 people have lost their lives so far, as per official estimates. 28 deaths were reported in Malappuram and 27 in Thrissur.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said saving lives and extending all help to the families of the deceased is the state government's priority.
In a statement issued in Lucknow, the UP government said, 'Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed that the National Security Act be slapped against the accused persons. He also directed that loss of public money during the construction work be recovered from the contractor and engineers.'
The Coast Guard has deployed a Chetak Helicopter to carry out search operation for missing vehicles.
The five-storey building -- Tareq Garden -- in Mahad town, around 170 km from Mumbai, collapsed on Monday evening. According to a police official, the rescue operation was called off around 11.30 am on Wednesday.
The National Disaster Response Force, Navy and Coast Guard officials have so far been able to locate only a signboard of one of the missing ST buses .
More than 50 workers were at work in the night shift when the mishap occurred in unit-4.
The accident occurred around 5.45 pm near Khatauli town, 40 km off Muzaffarnagar, leaving 23 people dead, the Uttar Pradesh police said.
Personnel of NDRF, Fire, Forest and police departments have expanded their search operations to the downstream of a river in their efforts to trace 19 more people who were still missing in the August 7 tragedy near Rajamala.
Many in the specialised force feel they are not being treated on par with those in the armed forces. Sahil Makkar reports
Assam reeled under devastating floods caused by incessant rain, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking stock of the situation and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visiting several relief camps sheltering affected people on Saturday, officials said.
The maximum damage has been reported from Mandi, Kangra and Chamba districts, he said, adding that so far 36 weather-related incidents have been reported from the state.
There were no immediate reports of any loss of life or damage to property.
In an apparent swipe at previous Congress dispensations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that attempts were made after independence to erase contributions of many great people besides India's culture and values, and asserted that the country is now correcting mistakes of the past.
Several people had taken shelter under the recently constructed structure while it rained. The dead, all of them men, were mostly relatives or neighbours of Jai Ram, who was being cremated at that time, officials said.
District Magistrate Ravi Kumar on Thursday said that 75 teams have been deployed in Patna to sprinkle bleaching powder and remove animal carcass.
Tapovan Hydro-Electric Power Dam, also known as Rishi Ganga Project was completely washed off following a glacier burst in the Chamoli district, said the Indian Air Force's initial report as Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) deployed at Joshimath has undertaken recce of affected areas.
On Thursday in Visakhapatnam, hundreds of villagers, most of them children suffered the consequences of the vapour leak like irritation in eyes, breathlessness, nausea and rashes, and over 100 people were admitted to government and private hospitals. Several police personnel, who came for the rescue operation, also suffered symptoms like breathlessness, irritation in eyes and fell unconscious.
The disaster management department said that the state government has urged the Indian Air Force to send a helicopter for air-dropping of food packets and other relief material in marooned areas.
The bodies of 13 people who were killed in a landslide at Plaupally in Koottikkal village (Kanjirapally Taluk, Kottayam District) were recovered.
'The 100-metre stretch from the opening of this tunnel is completely flooded with debris; the oxygen supply (through the pipes) too had gotten over and the chances of any survivors inside this tunnel are very bleak. Nobody has been able to talk to the people trapped inside'
At present, 2,265 villages were inundated and 1,12,667.06 hectares of crop area has been damaged across Assam, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.
Heavy rains last week caused massive floods and landslides in large parts of the state, especially in the coastal Konkan and Western Maharashtra regions.
The SDMA said the ill-fated private boat was carrying 73 passengers, including eight crew.
The release of water has affected over 1.50 lakh people and damaged 171 houses, he said, adding National Disaster Response Force personnel have been deployed in the area to rescue people.
Political leaders across parties reacted to the Air India Express aircraft crash, which took place on Friday evening at Kozhikode airport.
With incessant rains and the hot sun adding to the miseries of quake victims in Nepal, India on Thursday rushed 8,450 tents to its disaster-struck eastern neighbour.
