India announces $450 million relief package for Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday announced India’s decision to offer a reconstruction package of USD 450 million to Sri Lanka post ‘Cyclone Ditwah’.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday announced India’s decision to offer a reconstruction package of USD 450 million to Sri Lanka post ‘Cyclone Ditwah’.
The deadly floods sweeping through Indonesia since last week mark a sobering moment for a region long accustomed to the monsoon’s moods but rarely prepared for nature’s most erratic turns.
Cyclone Ditavah, which has left a trail of destruction across Sri Lanka, claiming nearly 200 lives, is now approaching the Indian coastline.
At least 334 people have lost their lives, and 370 others are still missing as Cyclone Ditwah wreaked havoc in Sri Lanka, local media reported, quoting the Disaster Management Centre (DMC).
Devastating floods have torn through parts of Colombo as Sri Lanka struggles with the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah, with the death toll rising to 193 and another 228 people still missing, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) statement.
The cyclonic storm Montha, which formed over the Bay of Bengal, is expected to make landfall along the Andhra Pradesh coast later on Tuesday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
With cyclone Montha racing towards the Andhra Pradesh coast, Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Monday ordered to shift people immediately from coastal areas at risk to relief camps.
These measures are purely precautionary, based on alerts and forecasts issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), they said.
It will further intensify into a severe cyclonic storm on Tuesday, Sarat Chandra Sahu, Director of CEC, said.
Odisha, which has a history of cyclonic strikes in October and November, braces for yet another cyclone even as the State government issued directions to the district officials in vulnerable pockets to stay in preparedness to successfully tackle exigencies of the situation.
