Mumbai (PTI): As many as 66 flights were cancelled at the Delhi airport on Friday due to fog and low visibility conditions.

Several airlines cancelled 66 flights to and from Delhi due to fog and reduced visibility conditions, a source said. Of them, 32 were arrival flights, and the remaining 34 were departure flights, the source said.

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Aviation regulator DGCA has announced the period from December 10 to February 10 as the official fog window during this winter.

As part of DGCA's flight operation norms during fog, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.

Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.

Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.

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Khargone (PTI): At least 200 parrots have died on the banks of the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district due to food poisoning, officials said on Friday.

The carcasses were found in the last four days near an aqueduct bridge on the riverbank in the Badwah area, and a post-mortem report has ruled out bird flu as the cause, they said.

Some parrots were alive during rescue operations, but the toxicity of the food was so severe that they died shortly thereafter, District wildlife warden Tony Sharma said.

The deaths triggered panic in the area after a suspected bird flu scare, but veterinary examinations found no trace of the infection. Forest department officials have banned feeding near the aqueduct bridge and deployed staff at the site for strict enforcement.

Viscera samples from the birds were sent to Jabalpur for further examination, officials said.

According to officials from the veterinary department, food poisoning and improper diet have caused the deaths.

Teams from the veterinary and forest departments, as well as the wildlife wing, have been monitoring the area for the past four days after being alerted by residents.

Veterinarian Dr Manisha Chauhan, who conducted the post-mortems, said symptoms of food poisoning were found in the parrots, with no indicators of bird flu.

People often unknowingly feed birds food that proves fatal to their digestive systems, she said.

Veterinary extension officer Dr Suresh Baghel said rice and small pebbles were found in the stomachs of dead birds.

Prima facie, the deaths seem to be linked to improper feeding, he said, citing pesticide exposure from feeding in sprayed fields and water from the Narmada River as contributing factors.

Visitors to the bridge feeding cooked or leftover food to birds may have proved fatal, officials said.