BackRecord rainfall in Chennai, 300 heatwave deaths in Telangana
IMD forecasts extremely heavy rainfall in some areas of north coastal Tamil Nadu
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New Delhi: Even as a heatwave wreaked havoc in six states across the country, heavy rainfall lashed south India, breaking records in Tamil Nadu.
Chennai received the highest single day rainfall for May in five years, with more rainfall expected on Wednesday.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast extremely heavy rainfall in some areas of north coastal Tamil Nadu and heavy rainfall at isolated places in south and interior Tamil Nadu, Rayalaseema, south coastal Andhra Pradesh, coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep.
“Chennai has received the highest rainfall for a single day in May, probably in five to 10 years if we look at the data," said an official at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Chennai.
The city recorded 67mm of rainfall in 24 hours on Tuesday, the highest for a single day in May since 2010 when the city recorded 109 mm in a single day in May.
A depression in the Bay of Bengal is expected to intensify into a deep depression, causing squally winds of up to 70kmph along Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coast from 16-18 May, IMD warned.
Parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat experienced a heatwave on Tuesday.
Khajuraho in east Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest temperature on Tuesday, at 47.1°C.
Though currently not in the grip of a heatwave, heat-related deaths have crossed 300 in Telangana, a senior state government official said.
“We are carrying out a lot of activities to spread awareness among people and sensitise all state departments. We are implementing a heatwave action plan and the deaths are lower when compared to last year," said B.R. Meena, principal secretary (revenue).
In a meeting to review preparedness of states most affected by the heatwave, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) last week discussed with state officials the implementation of heat action plans to reduce deaths and heatwave-related illnesses. NDMA stressed the need to maintain a database of heat-related deaths in states across India.
The ministry of earth sciences on 28 April informed the Lok Sabha that India had recorded 87 heat-related deaths till March this year.
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