Wayanad tragedy: Day after Amit Shah vs Pinarayi Vijayan, IMD chief defends rainfall warnings

In the early hours of July 30, massive landslides struck the hilly town of Wayanad resulting in the death of over 250 people

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued regular forecasts for significant rainfall activity along the west coast of India and a red alert for Kerala in the early morning of July 30, said IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra.

In the early hours of July 30, massive landslides struck the hilly town of Wayanad resulting in the death of over 250 people. Over 200 people are still missing and search and rescue operations is currently underway with the Indian Army, NDRF along with local emergency response departments pitching in.

Union home minister Amit Shah had said that Kerala was warned as early as July 23 about a potential natural calamity in Wayanad due to heavy rains. Responding to Shah's claim, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the IMD had only issued an orange alert for the district before the landslides.

However, Wayanad received over 500 millimetres of rainfall, which was significantly higher than what was predicted by the IMD.

Mohapatra, during an online press conference, said the weather department had issued an extended range forecast for significant rainfall activity along the west coast of India on July 18 and July 25.

"The long-range forecast issued on July 25 indicated good rainfall activity along the west coast and central parts of the country from July 25 to August 1. We issued a yellow warning on July 25, which continued until July 29, when we issued an orange warning. A red warning was issued in the early morning of July 30, indicating that very heavy rainfall, up to 20 centimetre, was expected," Mohapatra was quoted as saying by PTI.

Kerala had been witnessing continuous rainfall activity and "accumulation of rainfall" is also an important factor behind landslides, he said.

Moreover, he also said that similar warnings were in place for Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh too which have been impacted by heavy rainfall causing major destruction since yesterday.

Two separate incidents of cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh resulted in the death of three people while 40 people have gone missing. The heavy rainfall washed away several houses and roads and left two hydro power projects damaged. Meanwhile, in Uttarakhand, 10 people have been killed due to landslides and rain-related accidents since Wednesday evening, according to News18.

Mohapatra said it is difficult to ascertain whether Himachal Pradesh experienced a cloudburst.

"For example, Delhi also experienced heavy rainfall (on Wednesday night) concentrated in a short period. We call them extremely intense spells," he said.

"The reason behind heavy to very heavy rainfall in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand is the shifting of the monsoon trough (from south of its normal position) to the north," he explained.

(With PTI inputs)