Japan’s PM Fumio Kishida
Japan’s newly-appointed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday wrote a letter to PM Modi expressing his condolences to the victims following the rain in Uttarakhand and Kerala. Talking about the floods and landslides in both the states, he said that Japan will always stand by India in recovering from the loss of life and property.
He wrote, “I express my heartfelt condolences to the victims and their bereaved families. I also extend my condolences to those who are suffering and pray for the speedy reconstruction of the affected areas.”
A total of 65 people died, 22 were injured and two went missing during the recent torrential rains in Uttarakhand, in which 60 houses were also damaged. Several hectares of forest and agricultural land along with standing paddy crops have also been washed away in the rains and the chief minister has estimated a loss of Rs 7,000 crore as per initial estimates.
Search and rescue operations are underway in the higher reaches of Kumaon and Garhwal regions to rescue the stranded people, including tourists.
Light calm, heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning lashed many parts of Kerala, meteorologists on Thursday issued an orange alert indicating very heavy rains for eight districts of the state.
In its latest update, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has put the districts- Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Idukki, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Kannur- on orange alert.
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