Environment

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 10 (PTI) As Kerala continues to battle the torrential downpour lashing its shores, death toll has risen to 42 in rain related incidents, including flooding and landslides, with over one lakh people moved to relief camps, officials said on Saturday.

Twenty people have been killed in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, and nine have died in Wayanad in rain related incidents since August 8, officials said quoting reports received till 7 am

NEW DELHI, August 8. /TASS/: Around 130,000 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas in the western Indian state of Maharashtra following powerful monsoon rains. The NDTV channel reported on Thursday that at least 16 people had died there last week due to water-logging incidents.

According to the channel, certain areas of Maharashtra saw the four months' amount of precipitation over the past 15 days. Kolhapur and Sangli Districts are affected the most. The local authorities called on the military to help with the evacuation of residents.

08 August 2019; DW: The meter-tall "Heracles inexpectatus" roamed New Zealand nearly 20 million years ago. Scientists say it may have eaten other parrots with a beak that "could crack wide open anything it fancied."

Scientists in New Zealand have uncovered the remains of a gigantic parrot that roamed the country some 20 million years ago.

Kolkata, Aug 3 (PTI) Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has declared rural West Bengal as open defecation free (ODF) and said that her government will now focus on solid waste management.

Around 1.35 crore households in rural Bengal have been covered by the 'Mission Nirmal Bangla', which aimed at making all villages open defecation free (ODF) by October 2.

30 July 2019; MEMO: Ethiopians from all walks of life took to open spaces nationwide on Monday to take part in a massive campaign that set out to plant 200 million seedlings in a span of 12 hours, reports Anadolu Agency.

The initiative was introduced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to plant 4 billion tree seedlings in the rainy season of June, July, and August.

29 July 2019; AA: Turkish divers spotted an “aplysia depilans”, a rare species of a sea hare, off western Canakkale province.

Selim Konya, a diving center manager, along with several officials from Istanbul University, recorded spotted the rare sea hare at the depth of 26 meters in the Aegean Sea off Gokceada district.

Noting that it was the first time he saw such a specie, Konya said, “I saw it from a long distance. I was surprised and other divers were also surprised.”

Guwahati, Jul 28 (PTI) The flood situation in Assam remained grim with the toll touching 82 on Sunday, following the death of one more person in Barpeta district.

A population of 21.68 lakh of 1,716 villages in 56 revenue circles of the state is affected by the deluge.

Besides Barpeta, the 17 other affected districts are Dhemaji, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Nalbari, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Goalpara, Kamrup, Kamrup (M), Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat and Cachar, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.

IRKUTSK, July 28. /TASS/: The monthly amount of precipitation has fallen in the Russian town of Tulun in the Irkutsk Region in 24 hours, residential buildings and land plots are flooded again, the region’s government website says.

New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the municipal bodies why the city was still not clean despite their claims that they are making all efforts to keep the national capital's streets and colonies free of garbage and other waste.

"Why is Delhi still not clean," a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Jyoti Singh asked the three municipal corporations and directed them to file affidavits indicating how they intend to keep the city clean and also the number of safai karamchaaris, supervisors and senior officers in each zone along with their respective roles.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Two strong earthquakes hours apart struck a group of sparsely populated islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines early Saturday, killing at least eight people, injuring about 60 and causing substantial damage.

The quakes collapsed houses built of stone and wood, arousing residents from sleep, said Roldan Esdicul, who heads the Batanes provincial disaster-response office. Footage showed people clearing boulder-size stone bricks to pull out one body from the rubble of a home.