An unidentified man committed suicide by jumping from a Metro station in Hyderabad on Thursday, police said.

The incident occurred at Ameerpet Metro Station where he jumped down from the first floor of the station. He sustained head injuries and died on the spot, according to the police.

This is the second such incident at Metro station this week.

A woman had jumped from Victoria Memorial Metro Station on Tuesday. She, however, survived with injuries. Police investigations revealed that she had attempted suicide due to domestic problems.

PTI

A partial cloud cover marginally improved minimum temperatures across the Kashmir Valley on Thursday as the Ladakh region continued to reel under the first cold wave of the season, Met said.

“The cold wave conditions are likely to continue for another three days. We are expecting another spell of moderate rain and snow from November 12 to 14,” a Met official said.

The minimum temperature improved to minus 0.4 in Srinagar against Wednesday’s minus 2.2 degrees, while Pahalgam recorded minus 3.4 and Gulmarg minus 5.4 degrees Celsius.

Kargil town in Ladakh was the coldest in Jammu and Kashmir at minus 8.6 followed by Leh at minus 6.5 degrees Celsius.

Night’s lowest temperature was 11.5 in Jammu city, 1.2 in Katra, 3.2 in Bannihal, 7.1 in Batote and 3.8 in Bhaderwah, he added.

IANS

It was a foggy morning in the national capital on Thursday with the minimum temperature recorded at 10.5 degrees Celsius and air quality deteriorating to “severe” level a day after Diwali.

The air-quality across the National Capital Region has worsened, according to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) and the minimum temperature dipping three notches below normal.

“The sky will be clear with fog or mist in the early morning,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The maximum temperature was likely to hover around 28 degrees Celsius. The humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 86 per cent.

On Wednesday, the city witnessed an improvement in the air quality as it reached “poor” level after reaching “emergency” levels on Tuesday early morning before coming down to “very poor” and “poor” levels.

The maximum temperature on Wednesday settled at 27.8 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average, while the minimum temperature was recorded at 12.5 degrees Celsius, one notch below the season’s average.

Ians

 Landslides triggered by incessant rains closed the strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway on Saturday, according to a traffic department official.

The landslides were triggered after night-long rains in Ramban district.

“Landslide clearance operation will be started after the rains stop. Intending travellers were advised not to undertake the journey before contacting our control rooms in Jammu and Srinagar,” the official said here.

Heavy snowfall in the Zojila Pass has already closed the Srinagar-Leh highway.

Snowfall in Peer Ki Gali area of the Mughal Road connecting the valley with Jammu’s Rajouri district ohas also resulted in closure of the road.

The Met office has forecast improvement in weather conditions from Saturday onwards.

IANS

Temperatures across Himachal Pradesh on Friday dipped as high altitudes received mild spells of snow while others experienced rains.

The Met Office has forecast snow and rain across the state due to active western disturbance till Sunday.

The high hills in Kullu and Lahaul and Spiti districts have been experiencing light snowfall since early Friday, a Met official told IANS.

The skies over Shimla and nearby Kufri were overcast. There was possibility of rains later in the day.

The picturesque tourist resort of Manali was at 5.8 degrees Celsius after mild rain. The Rohtang Pass, just 52 km from Manali, received snowfall.

The minimum temperature here was 10.5 degrees. Kalpa, 250 km from Shimla, and Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district recorded the night temperature at three degrees and minus 1.1 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Lower hills of Dharamsala, Kangra, Palampur and Hamirpur saw rains.

IANS

The Disaster Management Department of Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday issued a flash flood warning in the state following information of a landslide taking place along the Yarlung Zangbo river in China that flows into India.

The river is known as Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Brahmaputra in Assam.

The department has asked the people living in and around the Siang river to prepare for a flash flood-like situation, as the landslide at Yarlung Zangbo is expected to influence the water level of the rivers downstream.

In view of the situation, the Disaster Management Department of the hill state has warned the people against venturing into the Siang river for fishing or swimming. The department has also asked everyone to maintain a strict vigil.

The Central Water Commission (CWC), which keeps a vigil on the water level of these rivers, has already confirmed that the water level of Siang recorded a drop at Tuting around 11.00 pm on Monday.

In case of such a landslide, the water level goes down as it blocks the flow of river, triggering fears of sudden gushing of the blocked water once the path is clear.

“The Upper Brahmaputra Division of the CWC has received a letter from Chinese authorities about a landslide occurring in Yarlung Zangbo on Monday,” said a senior CWC officer, adding the water level in the river might rise due to the landslide.

The CWC, however, said that at present there is nothing to panic about.

Yarlung Zangbo, which originates in the glaciers of Tibbet, flows through China to India before merging into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.

Earlier this month also there were reports of some landslide in the river which had blocked the flow of the river, leading to speculation that there might be flash flood-like situation in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

The Central government had sent eight companies of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to Assam and six to Arunachal Pradesh to deal with any kind of eventuality.

The Odisha government has said the Royal Bengal Tigress Sundari, which allegedly killed two persons, will be shifted from Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar.

Forest and Environment Minister Bijayshree Routray on Monday said once it is tranquilised, the tigress will be shifted to a well-protected environment in the zoo.

“Our plans are to keep Sundari in Nandankanan and we will inform National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) about the decision. If they do not accept our proposal, we may consider sending back the tigress to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh from where it was brought as a part of tiger translocation programme,” informed the Minister.

He said efforts are on to capture the elusive tigress in Satakosia wildlife sanctuary in Angul district.

Meanwhile, two experts team from Pench and Kanha tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh arrived to tranquilise tigress Sundari.

The Odisha Forest Department had requested its Madhya Pradesh counterpart to send two teams to capture the tigress.

The Royal Bengal tigress was brought from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve on June 28 in a pilot inter-state transfer project to increase the big cat population in Odisha. It was released into the Satkosia Tiger Reserve.

However, locals demanded to shift the tigress after it allegedly killed two persons inside the reserve.

IANS

Karnataka on Monday sought drought relief aid of Rs 2,434-crore from the National Disaster Response Fund of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to compensate for the crop losses in drought-hit districts.

“The southwest monsoon has been very erratic. The prolonged dry spell in north and south interior Karnataka during August and September has resulted in huge agricultural and horticulture crop losses,” the state’s Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande said in a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, shared with reporters here.

While pegging the losses incurred due to drought situation in 100 sub-districts (taluks) in 24 of the state’s 30 districts at Rs 16,500-crore, the state has requested the central government for a relief of Rs 2,434-crore.

“A total of 26.18 lakh hectares of agricultural area and 1.94 lakh hectares of horticulture area have suffered greater than 33 per cent crop loss with an estimated loss of more than Rs 16,500-crore,” Deshpande stated in his letter.

The letter was also sent to Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

Eleven of the 16 weeks of southwest monsoon season were largely dry, leading to soil moisture stress and crop loss, according to the state government’s estimates.

“I request you to depute an inter-ministerial central team for first-hand assessment of large scale agriculture and horticulture crop losses,” Deshpande wrote in his letter to the Union Agriculture Minister.

With depleting ground water levels, the state is supplying drinking water to 159 villages and has dug 203 private bore-wells to make drinking water available in the rural areas, and few of the urban areas facing water shortage, according to the letter.

The state also anticipates a fodder shortage in the coming days, with a total livestock of 75.31 lakh cattle and 114.35 lakh fodder dependent animals living in the 100 drought-affected sub-districts of the state, and has distributed 8.11 lakh fodder seed kits to overcome the shortage, Deshpande’s letter informed the Union Ministers.

A total of Rs 50-crore worth funds were released from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), providing Rs 50-lakh to each of the drought-hit sub-districts to carry out immediate relief measures such as augmenting existing water supply scheme, drilling new bore wells, the letter added.

IANS

A low intensity blast using improvised explosive device (IED) took place in the East Garo Hills district headquarters in Meghalaya late on Monday, police said on Tuesday.

However, no one was injured in the Williamnagar blast.

“The explosion occurred around 10.35 p.m. in front of a shack behind the State Cooperative building where some carpenters were sleeping,” district police chief Ringrang Momin told IANS.

This was the third such explosion in the area, he said.

The explosion site was about 50 metres away from the office of the Superintendent of Police in-charge of the district.

“The blast was of low intensity and no one was hurt. The shack which is made of corrugated galvanised iron sheets was also not damaged apart from a small dent due to the explosion,” Momin said.

A probe was underway. “A motive is yet to be established. Search parties have intensified patrolling,” Momin said.

IANS

An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale jolted New Zealand’ North Island on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said.

The quake, which occurred at 2.13 a.m., was initially centered at 39.0541 degrees south latitude and 174.9766 degrees east longitude, with a depth of 227.28 km, reports Xinhua news agency.

There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties.

IANS