4 dead as cyclone Nivar crosses coast
CHENNAI/HYDERBAD: At least four people were killed, over 1,000 trees uprooted and some low-lying areas marooned due to water-logging across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as cyclone Nivar crossed the southern coast between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, authorities said.
A combination of factors such as correct weather forecasting, evacuation of thousands of families ahead of the cyclone making landfall that also weakened resulted in preventing major casualties and avoided large scale damage, officials said after assessing the damage caused.
The very severe cyclonic storm Nivar, which crossed Tamil Nadu and Pudhuvherry between 11.30pm on Wednesday and 2.30am on Thursday with a windspeed of 120-130 kmph, weakened as a severe cyclonic storm by dawn. By noon, the wind-speed further reduced to 80-95 kmph gusting to 110 and its intensity weakened further as a cyclonic storm moving northwest wards, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
In Tamil Nadu, three people died in cyclone related incidents such as tree fall and wall collapse, officials said.
One person died of electrocution and another farmer was washed away in a rivulet, while hundreds of others were rendered homeless as heavy rains battered the coastal districts in Andhra Pradesh due to the cyclone.
As many as 227,317 people were evacuated in Tamil Nadu. “All of them were evacuated before the storm and flooding happened. Our precautions have ensured that there has been no major damage or casualty,” said minister for revenue and disaster management RB Udayakumar.
DEHRADUN: With a large number of pilgrims expected to participate in Mahakumbh 2021, Uttarakhand High Court has directed the state government to file an affidavit by December 2 regarding the preparations and additional measures taken to check Covid-19 spread during the fair.
The court in its order stated, “In view of the Kumbh Mela scheduled to be held in January, 2021, it is imperative that additional measures be strictly adopted by the state for the said purpose (checking spread of COVID-19).
Hence, in this regard, the state is directed to file an affidavit to inform the court as to the various measures that have been adopted, especially, for the purposes of the Kumbha Mela, scheduled to be held in the year 2021.”
The court gave these directions while hearing of a bunch of PILs on Wednesday. A copy of the order was made available on Thursday. The PILs have been filed by Sachdanand Dabral, Dushyant Mainali, and Rajendra Arya related to various issues regarding the fight against the contagion. The HC hears these PILs related to the COVID-19 situation in the state every Wednesday.
Before the pandemic, over 12 crore pilgrims were expected to participate in the four- month long Mahakumbh.
However, given the pandemic, authorities are not clear regarding the number of pilgrims who would turn up for the mega congregation.
On September 23, HC had directed state government to appoint monitoring committees in all 13 districts of the state to check the condition of treatment facilities for COVID-19 patients in the hospitals, quarantine centres and Covid care centres.
The court had directed these monitoring committees to apprise it about the situation in the state every week. The HC had given these directions while responding to the issue raised by advocate Shiv Bhatt, counsel of Sachdanand Dabral.
The schedule for various ritualistic events during Mahakumbh was released a few days back. Officially Mahakumbh will begin from January 1 and conclude on April 28. The first Shahi Snaan (royal bath) of Mahakumbh will be held on March 11(Shivratri), second on April 12 (Somwati Amawasya) and the third on April 14 (Baisakhi Mesh Poornima).