It is a complete mayhem in West Bengal, Manipur and Odisha with more than 60 dead
Around six lakh people have been housed in over 2000 relief camps in the two states.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
Some of these states like -- Assam and Bihar -- have been tackling the annual floods during the monsoon season.
Incessant downpour battered several states, including Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka, on Friday, with landslips and floods throwing normal life out of gear.
Meanwhile, flight operations from the Kochi international airport will resume at 12 noon on Sunday, an airport official said.
Rail and road traffic remained disrupted at several places even as the toll mounted to 64 with four more deaths reported from the worst-hit Darbhanga district in the past 24 hours.
The torrential rain that took place between September 27 and 30 has created a flood-like situation in 15 districts of the state, including the state capital.
Heavy rains and surging flood water continued to batter Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, claiming 194 lives and inundating vast swathes of land.
Nearly four lakh people have been affected across seven districts of Assam.
The picturesque landscape of Pettimudi was flattened into a rough patch of boulders and mud with parts of asbestos and tin sheets seen scattered around.
Rescue teams on Sunday recovered 13 more bodies, including the first ones to be pulled out from the sludge-choked Tapovan tunnel where a massive operation to reach about 30 people trapped inside began after a flash flood in Chamoli district a week ago.
22 bodies, 13 from Kottayam district and 9 from Idukki were recovered from various rain-hit areas while National Disaster Response Force teams continued their rescue operations.
With little rains since Saturday, the flood situation in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday showed signs of improvement with the water level in some rivers receding, official sources said in Lucknow.
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.
There is a definite attempt to put the landslides on the backburner because news of them and climate change worry Wayanad's tourism and real estate businesses greatly. Whatever I experienced of Wayanad's 2024 by-elections; the July landslides were not a burning issue, observes Shyam G Menon.
Eighteen people drowned in a boat capsize in the Kiling river in Morigaon district on Sunday evening. Another person drowned in Karimganj.
About 1.82 lakh people have been evacuated to safe places by the rescue teams in last 48 hours.
With over 8.69 lakh people still in 2,287 relief camps, it is a subdued 'Onam', the harvest festival, in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal over phone and discussed about the prevailing condition on Monday.
Currently, the Brahmaputra at Guwahati, Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, Goalpara and Dhubri towns, while the Barak at AP Ghat in Cachar and Badarpurghat in Karimganj are flowing above the danger mark.
The Centre said that there was no legal provision to declare a disaster as a national calamity, amid demands for declaring the floods as a national disaster.
The floods in the Mahanadi system have already affected over three million people in six coastal districts.
A heavy downpour in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh and catchment areas of the Brahmaputra has led to flooding in large areas in Upper Assam.
Guwahati airport is facing a threat from the swirling Brahmaputra River flowing near by. The river has severely eroded its embankment at Palasbari town near the airport.
India has rushed humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka, where devastation due to heavy floods has claimed 27 lives and affected over one million people. The death toll in the floods has climbed to 27 while another 12 persons are still missing, the disaster management centre said.
Three more bodies were recovered Monday from the Tapovan tunnel, taking the toll in the Uttarakhand flash flood to 54 as hopes of finding survivors there over a week after the disaster dimmed.
Sixteen deaths in rain and flood-related incidents have been reported from western Maharashtra in the last seven days, while the toll in Karnataka rose to five since Sunday.
Many people are feared trapped following two landslides at Shiv temple in the Summer Hill area and the Fagli area of Shimla city.
'The prime minister expressed concern and assured all possible help to the state,' CMO said.
The National Park is facing the worst floods in the past 10 years.
Torrential rains continued to wreck havoc in China with landslides and floods in northwestern province of Shaanxi killing 111 people and disrupting the train traffic between Tibet and the mainland.
Four persons, including a child, drowned in the flood waters on Monday taking the toll in the deluge to five, even as the flood situation in Assam deteriorated following incessant rainfall affecting 80,000 people.
The current wave of devastating flood that has lashed 26 out of the total 27 districts in Assam, has left lakhs of people from rural Assam penniless after their houses and paddy fields were destroyed in the flood waters.
The flood situation in Assam deteriorated on Sunday with over 19,000 people reeling under the waters in more than 60 villages across the state.
The situation in the state remained grim on Monday.
Uttarakhand Director-General of Police Ashok Kumar informed that 168 people are still missing following the glacier burst.
The flood situation in Assam continued to be grim with four more deaths in different areas of the state taking the toll to 35 even as the water level in some of the rivers have started receding, official sources said.
