NEW DELHI, Aug 1: The death toll in Bihar floods climbed to 13 on Saturday after two fresh casualties were reported, while floodwaters of the overflowing rivers in Uttar Pradesh affected 331 villages and about 1.90 lakh people following heavy rains.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued yellow alert for 10 districts in Kerala for the next four days, and heavy to very heavy rainfall for Mumbai and some other districts from August 3 to 5.
The MeT Department has forecast heavy rainfall for Uttar Pradesh and gave a fresh yellow weather warning for heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh for August 4 and 5.
Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana received light rainfall, while the Uttarakhand government started rescue operations through a helicopter in two sub-divisions of Pithoragarh district, which was wreaked by heavy rains in the past few days.
In Delhi, a fresh spell of rains kept the mercury within comfortable levels.
The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded a maximum of 36.3 degrees Celsius and 6.7 mm rainfall.
Humidity levels shot up to 95 per cent, causing slight inconvenience to the residents.
In Bihar, the two fresh casualties were reported from Muzaffarpur district. Earlier, Darbhanga and West Champaran had reported seven and four deaths, respectively, according to a bulletin issued by the state disaster management.
The number of people affected by the floods, across 14 districts, stood at 49.05 lakh, up from 45.39 lakh on Friday, while the number of affected panchayats too has risen to 1,043 from 1,012 on the previous day.
The state has received a total average rainfall of 768.5 mm since the onset of monsoon, which was 46 per cent above normal, which has led to a rise in water levels of most rivers flowing through the state, especially those originating in Nepal and crisscrossing the northern districts, known for bringing along huge deposits of silt.
The IMD has issued yellow alert for Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Iduk ki, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts in Kerala.
The weatherman’s website also indicates the formation of a low pressure area over north Bay of Bengal towards the later part of the first week of August and says it’s likely to intensify over the northwest bay of Bengal off the Odisha coast at the end of the first week.
In Maharashtra, the places likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall, apart from Mumbai, are Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Pune, Kolhapur, Sangli, Beed, Latur and Osmanabad districts.
Uttar Pradesh witnessed light to moderate rains along with thundershowers at many places in western parts of the state and a few places over the eastern parts with heavy rains at isolated places in the past 24 hours.
State’s Finance, Parliamentary Affairs and Medical Education Minister Suresh Khanna said 331 villages in 12 districts, including Barabanki, Ayodhya, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Bahraich, Azamgarh, Gonda, Sant Kabirnagar, have been hit by the floods but the situation is under control.
Three rivers — Sharada, Rapti and Saryu-Ghaghra — were flowing above the red-mark at some places of the state.
Sharda at Palia Kalan in Lakhimpur, Rapti at Birdghat (Gorakhpur) Rapti barrage (Shravasti), Saryu-Ghaghra at Elgin Bridge (Barabanki), Ayodhya and Turtipar (Ballia) were flowing above the danger mark, while the embankments were safe.
The state has started preparations to deal with any eventuality and ration kits, food packets, tarpaulin are being distributed and boats have been deployed in the affected areas. Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) have also been deployed.
The MeT has forecast rains along with thundershowers at a few places and warned that heavy rains are very likely at isolated places over Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.
In Himachal Pradesh, the Kullu National Highway was blocked due to landslides following rains at Jhiri village in Mandi district. Machinery has been deployed but big boulders have come down, officials said.
The Uttarakhand government started rescue operations through a helicopter in two sub divisions of Pithoragarh district, where incidents caused by torrential rains recently killed 18 people and cut off around 60 villages.
Heavy rains have wreaked havoc in Bangapani and Munsyari divisions in the last few days.
In Rajasthan, light to moderate rainfall occurred in some parts, with Rohat (Pali) and Poogal (Bikaner) each recording 6 cm rains, Vallabhnagar (Udaipur), Mandalgarh (Bhilwara), Sanchor (Jalore) and Dungla (Chittorgarh) recording a maximum of 5 cm rainfall, Weir (Bharatpur), Rashmi (Chittorgarh) and Pokaran (Jaisalmer) recording 4 cm.
Ajmer, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota also received 36.7, 15.1, 11.5 and 0.4 mm rains till Saturday evening since morning, according to the Meteorological (MeT) Department.
Punjab and Haryana also witnessed light rains as Chandigarh, which recorded a maximum of 32 degrees Celsius and 31 mm rains. Ambala recorded a maximum of 32.2 degrees Celsius and rainfall at 6 mm, while Ludhiana received 42 mm rainfall. (PTI)
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