Chennai rains LIVE: IAF halts rescue operation due to rain

The rains have caused widespread destruction in the districts of Chennai, Cuddalore, Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur in Tamil Nadu. By all accounts, the state capital bore the brunt.

At least 325 people have lost their lives due to severe flooding in Chennai, reports said. Officials say they expect the death toll to rise once the water levels go down, revealing drowned bodies.

Rescue and relief operations are in full swing in the worst flood-affected areas of the city and suburbs.

Also read: Modi watching Photoshopped Chennai is a full-blown epidemic now

Heavy rains battered Chennai again on Friday evening just as life began to limp to normalcy amid persisting power cuts and food shortages in Chennai and three other Tamil Nadu districts where floods and downpour have claimed 325 lives.

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Thousands of military personnel and social activists are engaged in a major operation of supplying food, water and blankets to thousands trapped in water-logged neighbourhoods - and rescuing the still marooned.

There is relief as water levels in the main reservoirs and rivers begin to fall. But numerous areas are still under water. Here is the LIVE blog:

With the rains having slowed down in Tamil Nadu and the surrounding areas, the National Disaster Response Force has now shifted its focus from rescue to relief work and will deploy its teams with the aim to persuade people to leave their homes and move to safer areas.
"We have stepped up our deployment in Tamil Nadu and surrounding areas. A total of 50 NDRF teams are here and this is so far the most massive deployment in any flood related situation," NDRF DG OP Singh told ANI.

Emphasizing on the large scale of the relief work, he added that the operation consisted of more than 1500 jawans and over 200 inflatable boats are still at work rescuing people.

The advantage with hindsight is that even the proverbial fool, after the event, gets the chance of a lifetime to become wise. No, the event one is alluding to here is not the Chennai cataclysm, but one that had ravaged Mumbai ten monsoons back. That natural disaster had brought home lessons in urban planning for all, especially, for the coastal city of Chennai.

The Mumbai floods were as much about unbridled concretisation and unabated corruption, as they were about the frenetic altering of land usage patterns and mindless disintegration of wetlands and rivers. Volumes were written, innumerable studies done about the disaster; its causes were underlined, and solutions outlined.


It is important to talk about urban planning; it is equally important to understand why urban planning has been a disaster across the length and breadth of the country. It is not about laws being in place. We have quite a few good laws though a few more of them would surely be welcome. This is a question of laws not being adhered to. It is also not about adequate safeguards not being in place; we have too many of them—albeit on paper.

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It is a about throwing these safeguards to the winds.
A particular kind of outmoded and obsessive psyche has dictated urban planning policies, and this is at the root of the frequently happening urban disasters. One cannot have a 20th century mindset in formulating 21st century policies. It is imperative that policies reflect the changing signs of the times. Urban planning cannot be deemed planning at all unless it is sustainable. Today, the very concept of urban planning is being held hostage — by unscrupulous politicians, medieval bureaucrats, insatiable industry, and elitist lobby groups.