Kerala reports second Cholera death of 2025, health surveillance intensified in Alappuzha
Alappuzha: A 48-year-old man from Thalavady in Kuttanad's Alappuzha district died of cholera on May 16, at a private hospital in Thiruvalla. Raghu P.G., a resident of Thalavady grama panchayat Ward VI, died. He was being treated after being admitted to the hospital due to a fever and diarrhea.
According to health officials, he had underlying co-morbidities and his condition deteriorated before being admitted to the Thiruvalla institution. This is the second cholera-related fatality in Kerala in 2025. Earlier in April, a 63-year-old man from Kowdiar in Thiruvananthapuram, Ajai Chandran, also died of the disease.
The Health Department and local panchayat have launched disease surveillance and sanitation drives in Thalavady. Water samples from wells and nearby waterbodies have been collected for testing as part of the containment measures.
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Centre rejects claims of diluting Aravalli protections, says 90% of range will remain safeguarded
New Delhi: Union Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Minister Bhupendra Yadav refuted claims that the Centre had weakened safeguards for the Aravalli hills, saying that the government is still steadfast in its commitment to protecting the delicate ecosystem and that almost 90% of the Aravalli landscape will remain protected.
Responding to growing criticism over a revised definition of the Aravalli range, Yadav said on Sunday misinformation was being spread about the changes, as reported by Hindustan Times. He clarified that the Aravalli system extends across four states- Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat and has been under judicial scrutiny for decades, with a related petition pending before the courts since 1985.
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Addressing concerns around the “100-metre” criterion, the minister said it was being widely misunderstood. He explained that the figure does not refer to the top 100 metres of a hill, but to the entire vertical spread of the hill from top to bottom. He added that gaps between two hill ranges would also be treated as part of the Aravalli system. With this interpretation, he said, nearly 90 per cent of the region would fall within the protected zone.
Yadav emphasised that mining activities would remain under strict regulation. He said the total Aravalli area spans around 1.47 lakh square kilometres, of which only about 217 square kilometres, roughly two per cent, has been identified as eligible for mining. Even within this limited area, he noted, the Supreme Court has directed that a sustainable mining management plan be prepared, following which clearance from the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education would be mandatory before any activity could begin.
The minister further underlined that mining is entirely prohibited in the Delhi portion of the Aravallis and that all existing protected areas and forest reserves in the capital would remain unchanged. He also referred to the Centre’s Green Aravalli programme, which has been underway for the past two years, and said the government was being portrayed unfairly through what he described as a false narrative.
Opposition parties like the Congress and the Samajwadi Party expressed concern over the potential ecological impact of the revised definition. Critics have warned that any kind of weakened protection could have long-term consequences for biodiversity, air quality and climate resilience in north India.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X, linked the survival of the Aravalli range directly to the future of Delhi and the National Capital Region, calling the hills a natural shield against pollution and environmental degradation. He warned that continued damage to the range would worsen air quality, biodiversity loss and extreme temperatures, with severe consequences for public health, particularly for children, the elderly and the sick.
