Kerala on high alert as intense rain forecast across State

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan issues alerts for heavy rains, emphasizes climate change mitigation and modernizing weather forecasting.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) put 14 districts in the State on red/orange alert given the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecast that Kerala will likely receive widespread rains, including isolated heavy showers, in the next 72 hours.

Mr. Vijayan said a cyclonic circulation above southern Sri Lanka and a low-pressure trough extending from Cape Comorin to Rayalaseema had catalysed the monsoon over Kerala.

The IMD had sounded an orange/yellow alert for select districts. However, Mr. Vijayan said the State could not take any chances after the Wayanad disaster. 

He said heavy rains over 48 hours had caused the catastrophic landslides that buried three settlements in Vythiri taluk in Wayanad early on July 30.

Mr. Vijayan said the government could ill-afford to discount the significant risk posed to human life and property by climate change-spurred intense rain spurts over a relatively small locality in a relatively short span of time.

In Wayanad, heavy rains quickly waterlogged the hill looming over the villages 6.5 km below, causing it to tumble downhill and swamp the sleeping residents. 

Mr. Vijayan urged district administrations to monitor high ranges and hillsides closely. He said the district administration in Wayanad had relocated residents of Puthumala, a landslide-prone zone in Meppadi panchayat, to a government relief camp in a nearby school as a precaution.