Thiruvananthapuram/Mumbai: The death toll in Kerala floods mounted to 60 even as rains abated on Sunday after pounding the state for days, while the situation remained grim in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat where 97 people have lost their lives so far due to the monsoon fury.
The unprecedented deluge since last week has left 31 people dead and displaced four lakh people in 80 taluks of 17 districts in Karnataka.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah undertook an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of Karnataka and Maharashtra.
In Kerala, over 2.27 lakh people have taken shelter in 1,551 relief camps. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan reviewed the flood situation with senior officials on Sunday and later told reporters that the toll in rain-related incidents since August 8 has touched 60.
Flight operations at the Kochi international airport resumed on Sunday afternoon, two days after it was shut due to inundation of the runway area.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for Kannur, Kasaragod and Wayanad given heavy rain forecast.
The Army, Navy, Coast Guard, NDRF, police force, volunteers and fishermen are involved in the rescue operation in various places.
The railways announced waiver of freight charges for transportation of relief materials to Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala, where over 10 lakh people had to be shifted from their homes to escape inundation.
Around 35 people have been killed in rain-related incidents in five districts of western Maharashtra in a week, including 17 who drowned when a boat capsized near Brahmanal village in Sangli on Thursday.
Four lakh people have so far been moved to safety from the flood-affected areas of Maharashtra, officials said on Sunday, adding 761 villages in 69 tehsils are affected by the deluge.
With the recovery of five more bodies, the toll in the boat capsize incident in Sangli rose to 17, another official said, adding water has started receding in some areas of the district.
Heavy showers continued to lash parts of Gujarat taking the toll in rain-related incidents to 31, including 12 deaths were reported from Saurashtra region since Saturday.
Several parts of central Gujarat and Saurashtra and Kutch regions have been receiving heavy rains for the last three days.
A police official said on Sunday five fishermen drowned after three boats caught in rough weather in the Arabian sea capsized off the Porbandar coast in Saurashtra region.
In another incident, seven people from Vavdi village in Surendranagar were swept away in the strong current of Falku river as they were trying to cross a causeway on Saturday evening, a police official said. See P6