Kavalappara village has become the sorrow of Kerala with about 63 people feared dead in the massive landslide.
It is a hill in Western Ghats in Malappuram district which buried a part of a village.
A mass of mud, gravel, and boulders came sweeping down, uprooting hundreds of trees along the way.
In neighbouring Wayanad district there was a landslide at ‘Puthumala’, a plantation village.
The two landslide sites are on either side of a section of the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats.
Both regions are among the top 10 places that were marked as highly vulnerable to landslides, as per Kerala State Disaster Management Authority.
Incessant rain pounded the region of Puthumala first and then floodwaters swept away the village.
As the soil had not hardened post the last year's floods, the possibilities of such disasters were high this year.
Landslides were reported from 80 regions in eight districts during two days this year, as per the government records.
Status of Reservoir levels in India
Reservoirs exceed normal levels for this stage of the year after heavy rain in Maharashtra and Gujarat, way below normal in rain-hit Kerala and Karnataka.
Central Water Commission (CWC) is monitoring live storage status of 103 reservoirs of the country on weekly basis.
It publishes the report on 'Storage Position of the Reservoirs' which shows the information of All India, State wise and Reservoir wise.
91 reservoirs are divided in five regions namely,
Northern Region - Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.
Eastern Region - Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura.
Western Region - Gujarat and Maharashtra
Central Region - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Southern Region - Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, AP&TG (2 combined projects in both states) Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The 103 reservoirs have only 4 % of their live storage capacity by 8th August despite having heavy monsoon rainfall.
In Gujarat and Maharashtra, storage in the 35 reservoirs has surpassed the 10-year average (considered normal), following incessant rainfall over the Western region.
The Western region has 35 reservoirs, in Maharashtra and Gujarat whose current live storage is 54% of their capacity.
In the Southern region are 32 reservoirs under CWC monitoring, which has a live storage of 42% of total storage capacity.
This is below the storage during the corresponding period of last year (62%) as well as the 10-year average (50%).
The storage in the 14 reservoirs of Karnataka is 6% below normal.
In the 6 reservoirs of Kerala, storage is as much as 49% below normal for this time of the year.
Of the 32 reservoirs in the entire Southern region, as many as 19 have reserves that are below 40% of full level.
The lowest deficit is in Telangana, where the two reservoirs are 62% below normal.
Tamil Nadu’s 6 reservoirs are 55% below normal.
Northern India’s 6 reservoirs, has 69 % of their total live storage capacity.
It have exceeded the corresponding storage at this time last year (39%) as well as the 10-year average during monsoon (56%).
In Central India, the 14 reservoirs have 44 % of total live capacity
This is better than last year’s corresponding status (42%) but lower than the 10-year average for this period (4 %).
Uttar Pradesh’s reservoirs are at 54% below normal.
In the Eastern region, the 16 reservoirs have 32 % of total live capacity, which is lower than last year’s corresponding status (47%) as well as the 10-year average for this period (39%).
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
CPI along with Wholesale Price Index (WPI) are 2 widely used indexes to calculate the inflation in the country.
CPI measure changes over time in general level of prices of goods and services that households acquire for consumption.
The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is releasing CPI (Rural, Urban, Combined) with the base year 2012 as monthly basis.
It is widely used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by governments and central banks for inflation targeting.
It is also used for indexing dearness allowance to employees for increase in prices.
India has adopted 4 CPIs.
CPI (Industrial Workers)
CPI (Urban Non- Manual Employees)
CPI (Agricultural Labour)
CPI (Rural Worker)
Monthly price data are collected from 1114 markets in 310 selected towns by NSSO and from 1181 selected villages by the Department of Posts.
The prices are being collected through Web Portals.
Web portal for rural prices was developed by NIC and for urban prices by the Computer Centre in MoSPI.
In India, RBI uses CPI (combined) for inflation purpose.
Decline in stubble burning
Burning of paddy crop residue, declined by 41% last year over 2016-level in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCR.
It is the major causes of air pollution, health hazards, disruption of transportation, school closures and soil degradation.
Over 4500 villages of Haryana & Punjab declared as Zero Stubble Burning Villages.
A Central Sector Scheme was launched to tackle air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue in those States.
Under the scheme, financial assistance @50% of the cost is provided to the farmers for purchase of crop residue machines.
The financial assistance are provided for establishment of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) of in-situ crop residue management.
CHC undertakes Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities for creating awareness among farmers.
ICAR is implementing the scheme through 60 Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs) as awareness campaigns.
Separate funds are being allocated to the States for crop residue management under Sub-Mission on Agriculture Mechanization.
