The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Friday said no progress has been made since Thursday in drilling through the debris at the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand to rescue 41 trapped workers but assured that the drilling by auger machine will start soon.
The prime minister wrote on Twitter that he spoke with Union Home Ministry officials and National Disaster Management Authority regarding the situation 'which is being monitored closely'.
Jaymal Singh Negi mentioned that his brother informed him about the trapped men engaging in yoga and exercises inside the tunnel.
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.
Chaired by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and attended by chiefs of the three services, secretaries of home, defence and others, the National Crisis Management Committee took stock of the prevailing situation in Kerala and directed all concerned to ensure continued assistance to the state government to meet the crisis, a home ministry spokesperson said.
Over 2 lakh people have been affected and displaced by a fresh wave of floods that has hit parts of Pakistan's southern Sindh province, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Monday.
The early warning system gives Indian authorities sufficient time for action, says Gyan Varma & Sreelatha Menon
'The Weather Channel argues that India faces the gravest challenge: Climate change-induced health vulnerability.' 'This is an issue often neglected, alerts Claude Arpi: "Prolonged summers, unpredictable rains, floods, droughts, and rising sea levels are the harsh realities of climate change in the country. These factors increase the frequency and severity of illnesses, pushing people into poverty, and forcing migration".'
A total of 1,350 people have been evacuated from Badrinath while over 3,500 remain untraced in flood-hit Uttarakhand, claimed the National Disaster Management Authority even as a United Nations agency estimated that the number of missing could be over 11,000.
Rescue workers on Tuesday were close to breaking through the 60-metre stretch of rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand in which 41 workers are trapped for the last 16 days, officials said.
India on Wednesdy said there was no likelihood of tsunami tidal waves being formed anywhere in the Indian Ocean region after an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude hit waters off western coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia.
The two-member technical panel comprising CD Thatte and DK Mehta had recently surveyed the dam site after Kerala expressed concerns over safety in the wake of recent tremors in the area
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday took strong exception to the National Disaster Management Authority forming a team of experts to draw up a contingency response plan for the Mullaperiyar Dam, saying it was nothing but "succumbing to the subterfuge" of Kerala.
Amid concerns over the Koodankulam nuclear power project, the National Disaster Management Authority has said safety measures at all atomic plants in the country were in place but admitted earthquakes at these sites cannot be completely ruled out.
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.
Dhubri is the worst-hit district, followed by Cachar and Darrang.
The pictures and videos of the locals wading through waist deep water in Bawana JJ colony area, waterlogged houses, school and hospital went viral on social media even as teams of engineers from Haryana and Delhi worked on a war footing to plug the breach.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday visited the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel site for a review of the rescue operations being carried out there to evacuate 40 labourers trapped inside since Sunday morning following its partial collapse.
Boring through the rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel was put on hold again on Thursday apparently after cracks appeared in the platform on which the drilling machine rests, in a fresh hurdle to the rescue of 41 workers trapped inside for 11 days.
The administration started preparing for the demolition of two precariously standing hotels in subsidence-hit Joshimath in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, but faced protests from their owners and locals on the issue of compensation, while more families were evacuated from the danger zone as the number of affected houses rose to over 700.
As the low-pressure area in the south-eastern Arabian Sea intensified into a severe depression on Friday, heavy rains lashed many parts of Kerala and huge tidal waves started hitting low-lying coastal areas.
With a major earthquake measuring 6.8 on the richter scale rocking mountainous state of Sikkim, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday spoke to its chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling and offered help in all possible ways, including availability of defence forces.
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.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala asked petitioner Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati to approach the Uttarakhand high court with his petition.
The flood situation in Assam deteriorated drastically on Thursday with one person losing his life and nearly five lakh people reeling under the deluge across 12 districts, an official bulletin said.
Fearing presence of more radioactive sources in Delhi scrap yard Mayapuri, National Disaster Management Authority and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) plan to carry out a multi-pronged approach survey in the area.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a 'Red Alert' and predicted 'very heavy' to 'extremely heavy' rainfall across several districts of Assam till Thursday.
Concerned over the possibility of terror attacks on the strategic storage reserves of petroleum products, the National Disaster Management Authority plans to mount mock exercises to check their security and work out remedial measures.
This comes as Supreme Court is hearing a petition filed by lawyer-cum-petitioner, Gaurav Kumar Bansal, seeking an ex gratia compensation for those family members, who died due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hundreds of people are facing a shortage of food, safe drinking water and sanitation in Kathmandu following the natural disaster, according to eyewitnesses.
Close on the heels of radiation exposure at a scrap market in New Delhi, experts on Tuesday detected one more source of radiation in the same area even as another affected person was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences taking the number of victims to seven.
The SDMA said the ill-fated private boat was carrying 73 passengers, including eight crew.
The 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel for the last 11 days are likely to be rescued in the next few hours or by tomorrow, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said on Thursday evening.
Pakistan's army on Thursday used helicopters and boats to rescue thousands of stranded people as the country grapples with the deadliest floods in its history that have killed over 260 people and affected over a million others in Punjab and PoK.
India registered its protest at the board of IMF, which met on Friday to review the EFF lending programme for Pakistan.
Rescue operations were underway in three subdivisions of Darjeeling district where multiple landslides have claimed 38 lives besides washing away highways and damaging homes.
Union minister Jitendra Singh assured the members of the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that there is better nuclear safety in India as compared to many other countries and there are enough safeguards in the Indian nuclear plants.
'These are people whom very few give importance and they were doing a mammoth job for the nation.'
At present, the Met department is often unable to provide exact information on the exact amount of rain over a localised area.
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.
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