Six people have lost their lives so far in the Cyclone Tauktae-hit coastal and surrounding Malnad districts of Karnataka, officials said.
The release of water from the Chungthang dam led to a sudden increase in water levels up to 15-20 feet high downstream, defence spokesperson Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said.
The human toll in the floods and relentless rain across the country reached almost 200 by Thursday, even as thousands in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha, West Bengal, and elsewhere were forced out of their homes into temporary shelters.
The accident occurred when the private boat 'Ma Kamala' was headed to Majuli from Nimati Ghat and the government-owned ferry 'Tripkai' was coming from the riverine island.
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 death toll has gone up to 24. The search operations are still going on. However, rains have started. "Despite that, our officials, and the NDRF are engaged in search and rescue operations," Idukki District Collector H Dineshan said.
The three districts are among over a dozen in the state that were lashed by incessant rain for close to 48 hours bringing normal business to a grinding halt and disrupting rail and road traffic in most places.
The DG said the maximum of four teams of the NDRF have been positioned in Kutch district and the Gujarat government has done an in-depth evacuation exercise as part of which fishing boats have been anchored, big ships have been sent to the high seas so that they are not affected by the tidal waves, more than 4,000 hoarding have been taken down so that they don't become deadly flying objects as strong winds blow.
The IMD director said, the cyclonic storm Tauktae in the Arabian sea is moving away from the Kerala coast and is now approaching the Karnataka coast.
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.
The spokesperson said a total of 3 National Disaster Response Force teams and those from the Army, state police and local administration are working at the Tupul yard railway construction camp of the Territorial Army.
'The rocks, the geology of the Himalayas will always spring surprises.' 'It's basically force majeure and the will of god.'
The SP of Chamoli district, which faced the brunt of the glacier break in Uttarakhand, provides insights about the rescue operations.
Nine more bodies were recovered on Monday from debris of the under-construction multi-storeyed building in Chennai that collapsed on Friday, taking the toll in the tragedy to 20 while two persons were pulled out alive
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said efforts are on to rescue the 300 stranded people, and they could be airlifted as the weather clears. Power and water supply has been snapped in several areas.
According to the home ministry's National Emergency Response Centre, 138 people have died in Maharashtra, 125 in Kerala, 116 in West Bengal, 52 in Gujarat and 34 in Assam due to the floods and rains.
The blast was so strong that it was heard in nearby villages. The fire and smoke could be seen from a distance.
With the fresh fatalities, the total number of people losing their lives in this year's flood and landslides across the state has gone up to 42.
With Tamil Nadu hit by floods, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and assured her all possible support and cooperation from the Centre.
"On August 16 night, just as we reached an abandoned government hospital for rest after four days of non-stop work, the local police officer, villagers and NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) officials came to us, asking to save the life of a woman who had just given birth," he said.
Landslides blocked roads, many villages went without electricity and the death toll climbed to 52 as authorities on Wednesday faced the aftermath of the rains that had battered Uttarakhand for over two days.
After days of incessant rains, the situation improved in many parts of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra on Tuesday with water receding in affected areas.
The state government asked the local administration to shift people from low-lying areas in Vadodara if needed as water entered into houses in several localities.
In Punjab, more than 9,000 people were evacuated in Patiala, Rupnagar, Moga, Ludhiana, Mohali, SBS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib districts, officials said on Tuesday.
A Korean couple and a retired Army Major General were among 310 people rescued by Chandigarh-based 12 Wing of the Indian Air Force, which has been conducting non-stop sorties during the past three days to evacuate people from flooded areas of Srinagar.
A look at some of the most tragic disasters in India in recent decades.
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.
'I saw people hanging on to the bridge and later falling into the water as their grip loosened and they slipped into the water.'
The Gujarat government had evacuated over 63,700 people from coastal areas of eight districts and 18 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and six teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed for rescue operations.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Uttarakhand government not to force people, caught in flash floods, to walk long distances and said that they should be air lifted to safer places.
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.
The water level rose above the danger mark in Haridwar and Delhi and the level at Bhakra dam was a foot above the permissible mark.
Flood victims have been fighting for survival and living in temporary shelters nearby railway tracks with lack of food items. They are yet to get any help from the government, reports M I Khan.
The Solicitor General had told the bench that several members of the National Disaster Response Force were working at the site and instead of the army, the government has sent navy personnel there as the mine was submerged in water.
"Six bodies have been retrieved from the accident site so far. The rescue teams are still on job," an NDRF spokesperson said.
The 15-member team, equipped with specialised diving equipment including a re-compression chamber and remotely operated vehicles capable of searching underwater, went straightway to the mine site in the remote Lumthari village in East Jaintia Hills district.
The US Geological Survey said the quake struck about 44 km (27 miles) from the city of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan and was at a depth of 51 km.
The flood situation affected nearly 26.5 lakh people across 28 districts.
The epicenter of the quake was Sonitpur and the quake occurred at 7.51 am at a depth of 17 kilometres, it said.
Even as Bihar continues its own rehabilitation after it was ravaged by floods, the state has offered Rs 10 crore for relief works for the flood-affected people in Jammu and Kashmir, besides supply of dry ration and boats.
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