Tirumala temple flooded for first time in history - only a trickle of devotees

The heavy rains in the region has flooded the famous Tirumala temple of Lord Balaji and there is just a trickle of devotees. The temple remained out of bounds for thousands of pilgrims because of floods and landslides that had been triggered by continuous rains. The authorities were forced to keep an arterial road leading to the temple closed.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 24 November 2015.

Usually it sees a heavy rush on weekends but, this weekend, the rush to one of the country's most famous hilltop shrine shrunk by half to just 50,000. There were at least 30,000 fewer pilgrims waiting for darshan the next day. It took just three hours for the general darshan to be completed those who travel by foot through the mountains got darshan within two hours because there were very few people en route.
Many devotees were compelled to cancel their trips because rains have been continuously pounding the temple town and the shrine above for the last 10 days, forcing people to stay indoors.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Heavy rains in West Bengal, Mamata rushes back from London - 39 deaths reported

Heavy rains have crippled West Bengal and so far, 39 deaths have been reported – moreover, it has affected nearly seven lakh people leaving many homeless. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh for the kin of those who died and has asked concerned officials to ensure prompt rescue, relief and restoration work.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 1 August 2015.

Most of the deaths were from lightning strike, wall collapse, electrocution, snake bite or drowning.
The Chief Minister had cut short her London visit and returned back to Kolkata because of the cyclone threat. She has asked the officials to ensure that release of water from different barrages due to heavy rains in the high catchment area is controlled and done with prior notice to local residents.
Preliminary assessment of Disaster Management department officials for loss to crops is of the order of one lakh hectare in areas of Howrah, Nadia, Birbhum, West Midnapore and Burdwan.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Heavy rains lash Andhra and Telengana – 150 fishermen missing

Normal life was thrown completely out of gear as heavy rains continued to lash Andhra and Telangana for the second day. 150 fishermen have been reported as missing – they had ventured out to sea on 17 June in 20 boats. Officials have set up control rooms to meet the flood threat.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 21 June 2015.

The missing fishermen are from East Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts and officials have launched a search operation in the Bay of Bengal with the help of the Coast Guard.
The worst hit districts in Telengana are Warangal, Khammam and Adilabad – the streams and rivulets are overflowing and traffic is blocked while marooning low-lying areas are marooned while dozens of villages have lost connectivity.
The water level in the Godavari at Bhadrachalam has been steadily increasing and people living in low-lying areas are in panic. The water level at Bhadrachalam stood at 24 ft on Saturday afternoon – this was nearly 11 ft up when compared to Friday evening.
The production of coal in the Singareni open cast mines in Khammam, Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad has been affected because the rain water entered the open cast mining area.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Hippo escapes from Tbilisi zoo - subdued with tranquilizer gun

Subsequent to heavy rainfall and flooding of the Vere River, the capital Tbilisi saw at least eight people dead and many more missing apart from wild animals like tigers, lions, bears and wolves that have escaped to freedom from the zoo.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 14 June 2015.

The heavy rainfall swept away dozens of buildings and cars and three of the zoo workers are among the dead with 10 more people are missing. A hippopotamus that had broken free was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquilizer gun.
It seems, a few other animals have been located, but no one knows for certain about how many of them are on the loose. The people have been advised to remain indoors while the zoo workers try to locate them. They are using helicopters and are circling the city of around 1.1 million people.
A preliminary estimate has put the extent of damage at $10m according to the vice mayor of Tbilisi.
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Talks in Peru on global warming facing hurdles

Everyone is aware that global warming is wreaking havoc on planet Earth hence, when a meeting was held by 190 nations to discuss and arrive at a modus operandi to control global warming, it is facing hurdles.
The two-week meeting on global warming was due to close in Lima, Peru, but disputes that arose in the opening days remain unresolved even as the negotiators struggled to come to terms with key issues.
One of the most contentious issues was to take a decision on what information should go into the pledges that governments are supposed to put on the table for a global climate pact expected to be signed at a summit in Paris next year.
While the developed countries want the pledges to focus on greenhouse emissions cuts, the developing nations want to see commitments of financial support to absorb the effects of climate change – this, as per estimates of the UN estimates would be in the region of $200bn annually by the year 2050.
Small island states are at risk of being flooded by rising seas and, they have complained that the draft does not make any mention of any "loss and damage" mechanism that had been agreed on in last year's UN talks in Poland.
Thee needs to be a permanent arrangement to help the poorest of the world, is how the negotiator for the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu has put it.
The rising sea levels, intensifying heat waves and shifts in weather patterns causing floods and droughts are all indicators of global warming and, at present, most CO2 emissions are emanating from developing countries like China as they continue to grow their economies and lift millions of people out of poverty.

No respite for Gaza – UN declares emergency after sudden floods

Over 400,000 Palestinians are trying to come to terms after having been displaced from their homes due to the 50-day summer conflict with Israel that came to an end in August. However, their lives are in turmoil again because of the sudden floods following two days of heavy rains – it has forced the UN to declare a state of emergency in Gaza Strip.
There are no reports of any casualty but hundreds of people have been evacuated and 63 schools are closed for the day in Gaza City.
It may be recalled that in October, international donors had pledged $5.4bn for rebuilding Gaza. But the heavy rains struck the small territory at a difficult time – even now, thousands of Gazan families still live in communal shelters or the ruins of their own homes after the conflict.
Moreover, in the Shejaiya neighborhood, where air strikes during the recent conflict had damaged many of the buildings, the residents are already in the grip of a cold and severe winter without any electricity or water.
The conflict in Gaza ended in August based on an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire – it was called between Israel and the Palestinians and under the agreement Israel agreed to ease its eight-year blockade of Gaza, while Egypt would re-open its border crossing and the militant groups and Israel would cease hostilities.
As per UN reports, the seven-week Gaza conflict that finally ended in a truce on 26 August had resulted in death of over 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians. The casualties also included 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel.