Heavy Rains and Red Alerts Disrupt Normal Life Across Multiple States

The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for several districts in Uttar Pradesh, warning of heavy to extremely heavy rainfall over the next two days. In neighbouring Uttarakhand, a red alert is in place for Bageshwar, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Nainital, and Udham Singh Nagar on Saturday, alongside an orange alert for five other districts and a yellow alert for three more. Officials have also suspended the Char Dham Yatra for two days due to the red alert and bad weather. Meanwhile, Delhi woke up to cloudy skies with the weather office forecasting light to moderate rain and a yellow alert. Further south, a deep depression triggered heavy downpours in Odisha on Friday, where at least 63 places recorded over 100 millimetres of rainfall and three places crossed 300 millimetres. The State government shifted around 14,500 people from low-lying and landslide-prone regions to 2,061 relief centres, while schools were closed in parts of the State. The Hirakud Dam opened 16 gates to release excess water into the Mahanadi river as rivers swelled. Flash floods struck multiple districts, including Balasore where the Jalaka and Budhabalanga rivers crossed their danger marks. Schools were also closed on Saturday in Chhattisgarh due to heavy rains that cut off several villages. In Andhra Pradesh, heavy rains damaged electricity infrastructure in North Andhra districts, though power was swiftly restored. Farmers in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram lost standing paddy, maize, sugarcane, and banana crops to floods after late sowing due to an initial El Niño dry spell. However, the deep depression helped lower the State's Southwest Monsoon rainfall deficit from 43% on September 15 to 22% on September 25. Visakhapatnam district saw its deficit drop sharply from 53.2% to 3.6% after receiving 291.9 millimetres of rain in five days. Additionally, recurring monsoon landslides since August may have rendered West Sikkim's Rimbi village uninhabitable, according to the State's disaster relief commissioner.