Category: Headlines

New Delhi: The Delhi Fire Department received as many as 201 calls on Diwali, said the officials on Tuesday. Notably, the Delhi Government has imposed a complete ban on bursting firecrackers in the national capital which is punishable by fine and jail.
“A total of 201 calls pertaining to fire incidents were received in Delhi, yesterday during Diwali,” said Atul Garg, Director of Delhi Fire Services adding that ahead of Diwali, the fire department was prepared to fight fires through drones with which they could access high-rise buildings while fire tenders were deployed near congested areas.
On Monday evening a fire broke out at an apartment in a residential society in Greater Noida West on Diwali evening, said officials. According to police officials, a fire broke out in a flat located in Vedantam Society in Gaur City 2 area under Bisrakh police station limits, prompting relief operations at the site.
Chief Fire Officer Arun Kumar Singh said that efforts are on to douse the fire completely.
“We got information at around 10.05 pm about a fire at a flat on the 17th floor of Tower B2 of Vedantam society. The fire reached the 18th floor too. Fire tenders were brought and the fire was controlled in an hour,” he said. Singh further said that no casualties were reported so far.
The cause of the fire and the damage caused were yet to be ascertained, the official added. As the whole nation was celebrating the festival, many cases of fire were reported across the country.

Vadodara violence: Violence broke out between two groups in Vadodara, Gujarat on the night of Diwali. The violence took place from 12.30 am to 1 am. On getting information about the incident, the police reached the spot. But the miscreants were so audacious that they threw petrol bombs even in the presence of the police. Vadodara Police DCP Abhay Soni said that till now no arrest has been made in this regard and police is checking the CCTV footage. The miscreants had cut off the streetlights before indulging in the violence.
Stone pelting between two groups
The rioters indulged in stone pelting, arson, and sabotage in the Panigate area while violence broke out at Harankhana Road area of ​​Panigate. The matter escalated when two groups clashed over a minor dispute. Both groups pelted stones at each other, and a mob set vehicles on fire and vandalized shops. The rioters threw petrol bombs at the police.
DCP Yashpal Jaganiya told that there has been an incident of stone pelting near the Muslim Medical Center in Panigate. Police immediately reached the spot and took action. The situation is completely under control. CCTV footage is being examined and eyewitnesses are being questioned.
Earlier, there has been violence between two groups in Vadodara when two scooters collided which was followed by fierce stone pelting and vandalism and police force was deployed in Raopura and Dhikata areas.

Cyclone Sitrang Threat: Many Northeast-bound flights and trains have been cancelled today fearing the threat of cyclone Sitrang. At least 10 flights have been cancelled since Monday. Indian Railways is also on high alert. Due to poor visibility, adverse climatic conditions and other operational reasons, air connectivity in the Northeast has been severely affected.
The IMD on Tuesday said the remnant of the cyclonic storm “Sitrang” which created a deep depression over Bangladesh has further weakened into a depression over northeast Bangladesh, north-northeast of Agartala and south-southwest of Shillong.
List of Cancelled Flights

Three flights connecting Agartala with Kolkata and two flights connecting Agartala with Shillong and Aizawl, respectively, were cancelled
Three flights from Imphal to Shillong, Delhi and Agartala were also cancelled
Two flights connecting Kolkata- Imphal- Dibrugarh and Dibrugarh-Imphal-Kolkata were also cancelled.
Out of the 10 flights cancelled, the majority were IndiGo-operated ones.
Several other flights from Lengpui Airport also remained cancelled.

Two intra-state trains – the Agartala-Sabroom-Agartala and the Agartala-Dharmanagar-Agartala have been cancelled.
Patrolling in the Northeast states has been increased in wake of an alert.NFR chief public relations officer Sabyasachi De said patrolling has been increased in Dima Hasao, Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts of Assam.

Breaking News LIVE: Cyclone ‘Sitrang’ crossed the Bangladesh coast near Barisal between 9.30 pm and 11.30 pm on Monday after skirting the West Bengal coast, the meteorological department said here. It said weather in south Bengal districts is likely to improve from forenoon on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a red alert indicating heavy to very heavy and extremely heavy rainfall has been issued for Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura. Widespread rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, and heavy to very heavy and extremely heavy rain at isolated places is very likely to occur over Tripura on Tuesday, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The cyclonic storm “Sitrang” pronounced as “Si-Trang” over the northwest and adjoining the central Bay of Bengal is very likely to weaken into a depression and then into a low pressure by Tuesday evening.
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Solar Eclipse 2022: As the year comes to an end, the world is set to witness the second and the last solar eclipse on Tuesday (October 25). The partial solar eclipse will happen amid Diwali celebrations and can be seen in portions of Europe, western Asia, and northeast Africa. The solar eclipse is set to begin right before sunset in the afternoon and will last for an hour. The partial solar eclipse will be visible from most places, but, its ending will not be visible in the country as it will happen post-sunset.
SURYA GRAHAN VISIBILITY IN INDIA
The Indian cities that will experience the partial solar eclipse are New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura.
SURYA GRAHAN TIMINGS, DURATION AND OTHER DETAILS

In Delhi, the solar eclipse will begin at 4:29 pm IST
In Mumbai, the solar eclipse will begin at 4:49 pm IST
In Kolkata, the solar eclipse will begin at 4:52 pm IST
In Chennai, the solar eclipse will begin at 5:14 pm IST
The duration of the eclipse (from the beginning up to sunset time) will be 1 hr 13 min and 1 hr 19 min for both Delhi and Mumbai, respectively.
The duration of the solar eclipse from the beginning up to sunset time will be 31 min and 12 min in Kolkata and Chennai.

REGIONS WHERE SOLAR ECLIPSE WON’T BE VISIBLE
The Surya Grahan cannot be seen from Andaman & Nicobar Islands and some parts of north-east India (name of few of such places are Aizawl, Dibrugarh, Imphal, Itanagar, Kohima, Sibsagar, Silchar, Tamelong etc.).
A solar eclipse is a phenomenon in which the moon passes between the sun and the earth, casting a dark shadow on the earth that can completely or partially block sunlight in some areas. During the maximum eclipse, the Moon will hide the Sun to a degree of around 40 to 50 per cent in the country’s northwestern areas. The percentage coverage will be lower than the statistics indicated above in other parts of the country. At the time of the maximum eclipse, the Moon will cover around 44 per cent of the Sun in Delhi and 24 per cent in Mumbai.
WHEN IS THE NEXT SOLAR ECLIPSE
The next solar eclipse will be visible from India on August 2, 2027. It will be a total solar eclipse. From all parts of the country it will be seen as partial solar eclipse.
WHAT TO REMEMBER WHILE WATCHING SURYA GRAHAN
Eclipsed Sun should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a very short time. It will cause permanent damage to the eyes leading to blindness even when the Moon covers most portion of the Sun. Safe technique to observe the solar eclipse is either by using proper filter like aluminized Mylar, black polymer, welding glass of shade number 14 or by making projection of Sun’s image on a white board by telescope.

New Delhi: Delhi’s air quality turned ‘very poor’ on Monday with its maximum temperature settling at 31.2 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average. The minimum temperature was recorded at 14.5 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average.
Humidity levels oscillated between 43 per cent and 90 per cent. Delhiites woke up to a pleasant Monday morning with the minimum temperature settling at 14.9 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average.
The relative humidity at 8.30 am was recorded at 82 per cent. The weather department had forecast mainly clear sky for the day with the maximum temperature likely to settle around 31 degrees Celsius.
The air quality in Delhi on Diwali Monday turned “very poor” amid an increase in stubble burning, bursting of firecrackers and moderately unfavourable meteorological conditions which allowed accumulation of pollutants, according to Swiss organisation IQAir.
Delhi on Diwali was the most polluted city in the world followed by Lahore in Pakistan, it said.
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.
The weatherman has forecast mainly clear sky for Tuesday with the maximum and minimum temperatures expected to settle at 31 and 15 degrees Celsius respectively.
(With PTI Inputs)

San Francisco: Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has rolled out customised ‘Avatars’ to some beta testers. According to WABetaInfo, an avatar is the best way to express yourself on WhatsApp. Users might experience a few minor glitches because this feature has recently been made available to some people. Some beta testers have received the option to create an avatar after updating WhatsApp beta for Android from the Play Store.
After creating an avatar, the application will immediately create a new sticker pack so that users can share stickers with their loved ones. Additionally, users can select an avatar to use as their profile picture.
More users will be able to get the feature over the next several weeks, the report said. Recently, the company released the ability to add up to 1,024 participants to groups, for some beta testers. The feature was available on WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS, but it was limited to a certain undefined number of beta testers.
The report mentioned that if any user wants to check if the feature was available on their WhatsApp account, they can try to create a group or add new participants to an existing one. In May, along with new features, the company rolled out the ability to add up to 512 people to a group from 256 people.

Korba: Chhattisgarh forest authorities have arrested 12 persons and detained a minor boy for allegedly killing an elephant calf and burying the carcass in Korba. The accused spotted the calf on October 18 and allegedly poisoned it the next day. Later, a herd of 44 elephants to which the calf belonged went on a rampage and killed a man.
Forest authorities said they have arrested 12 people and detained a minor boy for allegedly killing an elephant calf and burying the carcass in a paddy farm, officials said on Sunday. Katghora Divisional Forest Officer Premlata Yadav said that as per the preliminary investigation, the accused spotted the elephant calf at the farm in Bania village under the Pasan forest range on October 18 and allegedly poisoned it to death the next day and buried the carcass in the farm to hide the crime.
Later, a herd of 44 elephants to which the calf belonged went on a rampage and killed a man and three cattle in the nearby Devmatti village, she said.
Acting on a tip-off, forest personnel exhumed the carcass on October 20 following which an investigation was launched into its killing, she said.
Forest personnel found that paddy had been planted freshly on the patch of land where the carcass was buried to cover up the killing, she said. A case was registered for the offence under provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
Efforts are on to trace the main accused, who is a member of the Pasan janpad panchayat.
The districts prominently affected by human-elephant conflict are Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Gariaband, Jashpur and Balrampur.