In an application filed in the apex court, the Kerala government has also sought a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to control the water level by releasing water from the dam throughout the day instead of releasing a huge quantity of water at the wee hours without giving sufficient warning time.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who undertook an aerial survey of rain ravaged areas of Idukki and Wayanad, said Kerala was in the midst of an unprecedented flood havoc and the calamity has caused "immeasurable misery and devastation."
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.
With elections elsewhere in India showing that multi-pronged contests usually work to the BJP's favour, the party can gain if it hangs on stubbornly. In the meantime, any additional support helps. That is why the archbishop's comment attracted political traction in Kerala, observes Shyam G Menon.
While initial news reports said Roslin was a lottery seller, her daughter Manju claims her mother sold health products door-to-door for a living even as the accused insisted she had arrived to act in an adult film.
A photograph of Kumar snapped while scurrying across the bridge with the child two days ago, has gone viral on the social media with people showering praise on him.
Airlines have been advised to reschedule services, to the convenience of passengers.
In a statement, it said 198 properties in the state were partially damaged and 30 houses completely destroyed in the rains from July 31 to till date.
After coming under fire for his sexually-coloured remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, former member of Parliament Joyce George on Tuesday withdrew his comments and expressed regret publicly, even as the national party demanded his arrest while the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist distanced itself from the slur.
More than 53,500 people were now staying in various relief camps across the state.
The minister, who made an aerial survey of badly affected areas in Idukki and Ernakulam districts, said the rains and floods had caused 'massive damage' to the farm sector and infrastructure like roads and power.
One man was killed and two others injured in Thrissur district on Tuesday after an uprooted tree fell on them in heavy rains and strong winds.
IMD issued red alerts for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Idukki districts.
Police suspects that issues between student activists over using college walls led to the attack.
'Only when you see it, you will understand how bad the situation is.' 'The soil in the entire mountain range is soaked with water now and that uproots the trees.' 'It is frightening to see the way the soil drags down the trees with great force.'
The IMD also issued a red alert in the same 10 districts for August 3 also.
Gadgil and the report prepared by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) headed by him are back in news after over two dozen people lost their lives in landslides and flash floods in the past few days in the hilly regions of Western Ghats in central Kerala districts of Kottayam and Idukki.
A protest march of the SFI, the students wing of ruling CPI-M, against Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's office in Wayanadon Friday turned violent as a group of protestors allegedly entered the Lok Sabha member's office and vandalised it.
Subahani Haja Moideen, a Keralite, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2016 following a crackdown in Tamil Nadu with the help of central security agencies and other state police, foiling designs of Islamic State operatives to attack or eliminate certain prominent persons and target places of public importance.
"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.
The passenger belonged to a group of 19 holidaying in the hill resort town of Munnar in Kerala and was under surveillance.
'We have only ourselves to blame.' 'For selfish reasons and greed, we have obstructed many outlets, preventing the water from flowing out, be it rivers, tributaries or small drainage systems.'
In a letter to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan highlighted that a few states were reporting a higher contribution to India's caseload, indicating the possibility of a localised spread of the infection.
The Tamil Nadu government has told the Supreme Court that "repeated assertion" by Kerala to seek decommissioning of the 126-year-old Mullaperiyar dam is "wholly impermissible" as the dam has been found to be hydrologically, structurally and seismically safe.
Given the intensity of the rain, at least a third of this crisis could have been averted, had Tamil Nadu heeded Kerala's requests.
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.
Cracking the whip, Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday removed its Idukki district secretary M M Mani from his post for his controversial speech that the party had eliminated political foes in the past, which had embarrassed the organisation and invited an all round condemnation.
Many elderly villagers said it was for the first time in their decades-old life that they were seeing and experiencing such severe rainfall.
College is where the manicured view of the world provided by one's family, encounters new trends. It is the dawn of exploration. Wishing for a sanitised bubble on campus appears hypocritical. The correct strategy, one would assume, is to weed out the violence while retaining the right to political debate, argues Shyam G Menon.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
A cricket club in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba has come to the rescue of several Indian researchers at the Ben-Gurion University in the Negev southern region, who had been struggling for a proper shelter while being under a complete siege with rockets raining over the country's south during the past one week.
Asked to board the flight for the Asian Games despite some family members reportedly missing in the wake of the Kerala floods, debutant long-jumper M Sreeshankar said he can finally focus on the job at hand after his grandfather and uncle were traced.
Water level in the Mullaperiyar dam is threatening to cross the permissible limit of 142 feet, leading to fears about the safety of the people living downstream from it in Kerala even as six spillway shutters were opened on Monday night to release excess water.
The decision to suspend the operations was taken after shutters of the Idamalayar and Cheruthoni dams, part of Idukki reservoir, were opened on Tuesday evening to release excess water.
It is for the first time in 13 years that the water has reached near-capacity level.
Soumya Santosh worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.
Villages are flooded, roads have washed away and railway tracks have submerged under the rising waters.
'The rivers that caused the maximum problem were the ones that had dams built on them.'
32-year-old lothario, hailing from Munnar in Idukki district and working in a private company in Ernakulam, came in touch with his friend after 20 years when he got trapped in Muvattupuzha town following the COVID-19 lockdown announcement in March.
