A large Indian Air Force helicopter on Tuesday crashed during rescue operations near Gaurikund in rain-ravaged Uttarakhand, killing eight persons onboard, including five crewmembers.
Amid criticism over the response of the Congress government in Uttarakhand to the devastation in the state, party president Sonia Gandhi on Monday flagged off relief supplies from the national capital. Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, whose "absence" from the country when the disaster struck was questioned by Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, was present on the occasion.
Apart from that, as part of efforts to provide assurance to 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel and relieve their stress, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has stepped in to provide them with a landline through which they can talk to their families.
The NRSC satellite imagery revealed that the lake covered approximately 162.7 hectares. Its area increased to 167.4 hectares on September 28 but drastically reduced to 60.3 hectares.
The team consisted of trainee mountaineers from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and their trainers.
The military's earthquake relief operations in Gujarat, Kashmir and Sikkim, and rescue work during the Ladakh flash floods highlight that it is the only effective disaster response force in the country, says Ajai Shukla
Even as the jury is still out on whether the destruction in the state is man-made or caused by nature's fury, there's sufficient evidence to suggest that warnings were loud and clear much before the disaster struck.
Two days after he advised VIPs not to visit Uttarakhand, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde did a U-turn on Wednesday saying that anyone, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, could go to the rain-ravaged state now as the situation has changed there.
Cracks appeared on the ground and houses in the village following heavy rain that hit various parts of Uttarakhand last month, killing people and damaging infrastructure.
Tourism to Corbett and Almora could be particularly hit as a result of the fire, which has destroyed 2,200 hectares of forest.
A helicopter carrying pilgrims from Guptkashi to Kedarnath crashed on Tuesday amid poor visibility and seven people on board are feared dead.
The weather office has forecast intense spells of rain at isolated places in Nainital, Champawat, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Dehradun, Tehri and Pauri districts on Sunday.
Fresh images from satellite has shown that the effective area under fire in Uttarakhand has come down to 110-115 locations from the earlier about 427
Senior administrative officials have rushed to the spot and search and rescue operation has been launched.
Many families in the affected area are finding it hard to sever their emotional ties with their homes and move out.
Heavy overnight rains across Uttarakhand on Monday led to a rise in the levels of most water bodies, including the Bhagirathi River and the Tehri Lake.
According to the NDMA's recent data, rains and floods had affected 4,200 villages in Uttarakhand besides damaging 2,397 houses and 194 bridges.
The home minister held discussions with chief secretary and other state officials on the situation arising due to the forest fire and offered all assistance from the Centre.
He further said that the "focus is on horizontal drilling" as rock formation has created challenges for vertical drilling.
Thousands of firemen, NDRF and IAF personnel along with forest officials are working together to douse the flames.
Narayan Jagadeesan followed up his double ton in the previous game with a magnificent triple century to help Tamil Nadu declare their first innings
The chief minister will visit Joshimath on Saturday, meet the affected people and hold a meeting with officials.
After 16 days of intense efforts by multiple agencies, all 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi have safely been evacuated on Tuesday evening.
National Disaster Response Force teams were rushed from Delhi to the affected areas in both Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts to help in the rescue operations along with along with State Disaster Response Force, Sashastra Seema Bal and Indo-Tibetan Border Police and local agencies, officials said.
The number of subsidence-affected homes rose to 678 while 27 more families were evacuated to safety, a bulletin from the Disaster Management Authority in Chamoli said, adding so far 82 families have been shifted to safe locations in the town.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
This is the third earthquake to hit seismically-active Nepal in a week.
According to the Jyotirmath administration, these cracks have increased in the last 15 days.
Public general insurance companies to collaborate for speedy settlement of claims
They said rampant infrastructure development without a plan is making the fragile Himalayan ecosystem even more vulnerable to the effects of climate change which acts as a force-multiplier.
Inching closer to their goal, rescuers have inserted wide pipes up to 45 metres through the rubble and will have to drill another around 12 metres to reach the 41 workers trapped inside the collapsed tunnel in Silkyara for 10 days, officials said Wednesday afternoon.
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.
Kedarnath Valley, the temple town which was the epicentre of the Uttarakhand rain fury, was on Sunday cleared of all stranded pilgrims, as rescuers battled rains to evacuate 3,000 more people in the disaster in which the death toll is likely to cross 5,000.
The death toll in the Uttarkashi bus accident rose to 26 with the recovery of one more body after which the search and rescue operation was concluded, officials said on Monday.
The labourers have been trapped since Sunday morning when a part of the tunnel collapsed following a landslide.
Despite high exposure to floods, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim are the best performing states in terms of flood early warning systems (EWS), according to the report by independent policy research think tank The Council on Energy Environment and Water.
The national calamity response force, NDRF feels it is time that citizens are "trained" in combating both man-made and natural catastrophes.
Drilling at the collapsed Silkyara tunnel to rescue 41 men trapped inside for 12 days was halted again on Friday, officials said.
A total of 800 people, belonging to 237 families, have so far been shifted to safety by the district administration
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.
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