At least 15 people have died in heavy floods and landslides triggered by continuous rain for the last three days in Assam, where airforce helicopters, army, National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been pressed into service for rescue work, officials said.
Water levels have started receding in Srinagar and telecommunication has been restored in parts of the city after it faced the worst floods in decades.
Four persons were arrested on Monday in connection with the collapse of the cable suspension bridge on the Machchu river in Morbi in Gujarat in which 134 people were killed, the police said.
There was a rush of people on the bridge, which was reopened for the public just four days ago following the renovation work, when it snapped around 6.30 pm, officials said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he ordered to stop the water outflow from the Bansagar dam so that the water level in the canal can go down, which will aid in rescue operations.
'Now they're talking about changing the Constitution; they feel they have no reason now to hide their intentions.'
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.
Seven days after a 11-storeyed under construction building collapsed in Chennai, rescuers called off their massive non-stop operations today as the death toll was put at 61 with no survivor or body being found during the day.
26 bodies have been recovered while nearly 14 are still missing following the bridge collapse on Mumbai-Goa Highway on August 2.
The cyclonic depression may have crossed the Tamil Nadu coast on Thursday evening, but the state continues to be battered by heavy rains.
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.
The Indian contingent of more than 300 navy personnel was assisting in the relief, with divers searching the brackish waters and medical teams seeing patients in makeshift tents set up at shelters.
A helicopter carrying pilgrims from Guptkashi to Kedarnath crashed on Tuesday amid poor visibility and seven people on board are feared dead.
The IMD has also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
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.
It was a special-purpose mobile gantry crane used in bridge construction and to install precast box girders in highway construction projects.
Two more bodies were on Sunday found in the search and rescue operations which continued for fourth day following the collapse of a bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway near Mahad in Raigad district, taking the death toll to 26.
Around six lakh people have been housed in over 2000 relief camps in the two states.
A Red alert, indicating heavy to very heavy rains of over 20 cm in 24 hours, has been sounded for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathnamthitta and Alappuzha districts on December 3, while Orange alert (6 cm to 20 cm rains)for Kottayam, Ernakulam and Idukki districts the same day.
Swirling waters inundated 12 districts of Buxar, Bhojpur, Patna, Vaishali, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar.
'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'
Flood fury on Sunday maintained its grip over Jammu and Kashmir, leaving 138 dead and many marooned as the swirling waters inundated the army cantonment, Civil Secretariat and the high court in Srinagar and snapped road and communication links.
The cruise which was scheduled to dock at the shore for the tourists to visit Chirand, an archaeological site, got stuck because of water deficiency in the Ganges near the Doriganj area of the district.
The weatherman said when 'Amphan' makes the landfall between West Bengal's Digha, some 180 km from Kolkata, and Hatiya island in Bangladesh on Wednesday afternoon or evening, it will pack sustained wind speed of 155 to 165 kmph, gusting at 185 kmph. The gale-force wind, blowing at a speed of 240 to 250 kmph and gusting to 275 kmph at one point, had lost intensity and was moving at a speed of 200 to 210 kmph, gusting to 230 kmph on Tuesday evening.
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.
At least 20 other persons are feared trapped under the debris of the building in Navi Vasti locality.
The number of those rescued has gone up to 25, with five more persons being pulled alive out from the debris since Monday night, police said. The dead include 11 children, aged between two to 15 years, an official said.
The Odisha government is preparing for Cyclone Phailin -- which is expected to hit the east coast on Saturday evening -- on a war footing.
The death toll in the avalanche triggered by the bursting of a glacier in Chamoli has gone up to 58 as a total of 11 bodies are recovered from the Tapovan tunnel, whereas 146 people are still missing, said Uttarakhand Police on Tuesday.
Dramatic visuals showed fidgety people inside the cable cars that hung in air against the backdrop of a rocky hill cliff that overlooked a densely-forested valley.
Missing reports of 205 persons have been registered at Joshimath police station so far.
'The problem is that all this reconstruction work is being monitored by the prime minister himself with inputs being provided directly by the PMO so nobody in the state government dare contradict them even if their suggestions are totally contrary to what the ecology of this region requires.'
Resumption of 'Char Dham yatra' after a gap of two Covid-marred years is a welcome development for thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on it, but the death of 78 pilgrims on way to the Himalayan temples in less than a month is causing concern.
Several people were feared trapped under the debris, police said, adding that the rescue operation was underway.
No immediate relief appears in sight as the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for six districts which have been already pounded by downpour, forecasting "extremely heavy" rainfall and recommending preventive actions.
Major rivers in Ratnagiri district, including Jagbudi, Vashishti, Kodavali, Shastri, Bav are flowing above the danger level. As a result, Khed, Chiplun, Lanja, Rajapur, Sangameshwar towns and nearby areas have been affected and residents are being shifted to safer places.
As many as 21,080 villagers from Vasai, Palghar, Dahanu and Talasari talukas, which are likely to be affected by the cyclonic storm, have been shifted to safer places, district collector Dr Kailas Shinde said.
At least six people were killed and dozens were missing after a massive landslide occurred at a railway construction site in Manipur's Noney district, officials said.
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Wednesday, causing flooding on roads and rail tracks and disrupting suburban train services as the south-west monsoon arrived in the city.
Floods have forced people to eat rats to survive as there is nothing left to eat. M I Khan reports from Patna.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances