4 dead in U’khand; heavy rain claims 41 lives across country
NEW DELHI: At least four people were killed in Uttarakhand on Monday as heavy rain lashed several parts of the country, triggered by low pressure in Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal and western disturbances, taking the toll in rain-related incidents to 41 in the past 48 hours across India.
Of the total 41 deaths, 35 were reported from Kerala, four from Uttarakhand and one each from Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal. Kerala received extremely heavy rainfall on Friday and Saturday due to a low pressure in the Arabian Sea. At least six districts in central-south Kerala received over 204 mm rain during the 48-hour period. Peerumedu in Idukki district received the maximum 297 mm rainfall. In other parts of the country such as Chandigarh, Kolkata and Shimla, it was highest single-day rain in October in the last one decade.
In Uttarakhand, four people died and several roads were blocked as heavy rains threw life out of gear on Monday. While three people died in the Lansdowne area of Pauri Garhwal district after their shanty collapsed under heavy muck brought in by the rains on Monday morning, a 53-year-old woman died in a similar incident in Champawat district.
In the hilly Pithoragarh district, at least 10 roads including three major ones — Tanakpur to Pithoragarh, Jauljibi to Munsiyari and Tawaghat- Darma — were blocked due to landslides and muck brought in by heavy rains, officials said.
Meanwhile, the state government temporarily suspended the char dham yatra and advised pilgrims who arrived in Haridwar and Rishikesh by Sunday not to proceed further till the weather improves.
Higher reaches in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh on Monday received snowfall, bringing down the day temperature by at least 5 degree Celsius. Officials in the two states said most of the rivers, including Sutluj in Himachal and Ram Ganga in Uttarakhand, were flowing three to five feet above the danger mark.
Uttarkhand received 36.7mm rainfall in last 24 hours, whereas Himachal received 37.2 mm, almost 40% more than the decadal average of daily rainfall in October in western Himalayas.
Meteorologist Mohammad Hussain Mir said the sudden rainfall was owing to confluence of two weather systems (westerlies and easterlies) from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. “These systems together focused over J&K, Himachal, Uttarakhand and other areas to bring the precipitation,” he said. “This does not happen routinely but occasionally after two-three years.”
The unseasonal rainfall has also impacted farm produce procurement, especially paddy, in western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. However, agriculture department officials in Punjab said there was very less impact on paddy procurement in the state as rainfall was negligible. The rain also brought good news for farmers, who said it was good for sowing of winter crop, which would be completed by mid-November in the plains of northern India.
In eastern India, heavy to very heavy rain, triggered by a low pressure over West Bengal and north Odisha, battered the districts of south Bengal including Kolkata and coastal parts of Odisha since Sunday night. Some of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stations in the coastal districts such as South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore received more than 100mm rain in the last 24 hours.
IMD Jharkhand, meanwhile, has issued yellow alert as the state received 89 mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours.