New Delhi: There seems to be no respite from the heavy rainfall in many parts of the country as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts downpour in many regions from tomorrow. Several districts and areas around dams in Kerala have been put on high alert.
Different parts of the country are receiving unprecedented and heavy rainfall. Uttarakhand, where about 34 people have lost their lives, and Kerala with about 41 deaths are experiencing the worst.
IMD has now issued warnings for other states as well. On Tuesday, it issued an Orange alert for 11 districts of Kerala, indicating heavy rainfall. The weatherman has put 12 districts in the state on Orange alert for Thursday also.
The IMD sounded an Orange alert for Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, and Kannur districts on October 20. In addition, an Orange alert was issued for all districts other than Kannur and Kasaragod on October 21.
A Red alert indicates heavy to extremely heavy rains of over 20 cm in 24 hours, while an Orange alert denotes very heavy rains from 6 cm to 20 cm. A yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 6 to 11 cm. Shutters of Cheruthoni dam, part of the Idukki reservoir in Kerala, were opened on Tuesday to create more storage capacity in anticipation of the heavy rainfall predicted in its catchment area over the next two days.
The Met department predicts rainfall for South Interior Karnataka from October 20 to October 23. The weatherman informed that the isolated and very heavy rainfall is also very likely over Kerala, Mahe and Tamilnadu, Puducherry and Karaikal on October 20 and October 21.
The IMD said a low-pressure area lies over Bihar and the neighbourhood. Also due to strong southerly/southeasterly winds from the Bay of Bengal, a heavy spell of rainfall activity is very likely to continue over east and northeast India till October 20. In West Bengal, the Met department said heavy rainfall is very likely to continue till Thursday morning even as the low-pressure system that developed over the Gangetic Basin in the southern part of the state moved to Bihar, parts of which received heavy rains during the day.
The Met also informed that heavy rainfall was also very likely over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh on October 20; over Bihar on October 19; over Assam and Meghalaya on October 19 and October 20.
The IMD in its forecast said Uttarakhand may see dry weather for the subsequent three days, adding that after that, a fresh Western Disturbance is very likely to affect Western Himalayan Region from October 22 and cause scattered to fairly widespread rain/snow over Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Muzaffarabad on October 22, with isolated heavy rainfall on October 23.