No Kambala event in Bengaluru on Oct 26: Committee informs High Court
Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Kambala Committee has informed the High Court that there will be no Kambala event on October 26 at the Palace Grounds in the city, and no request has been submitted to the competent government authority to hold the event elsewhere.
A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by PETA challenging the Bengaluru Kambala event, and the matter was heard by a division bench comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind.
During the hearing, advocate Vinod Kumar, representing the Bengaluru Kambala Committee, informed the court that no Kambala event is scheduled for October 26. Senior advocate Dhyan Chinnappa, representing PETA, argued that if permission is granted to conduct the event, it should be brought to their attention, so they can approach the court. He also mentioned that a Kambala event is being planned on November 9 near the Pilikula Zoo in Dakshina Kannada. The zoo's director has written to the deputy commissioner, raising concerns about the impact of the event's noise on animals.
Appearing for the state government, Advocate General K. Shashikiran Shetty said that documents related to the legal permission granted for last year’s Bengaluru Kambala will be submitted to the court. He added that PETA's objection centres on the claim that the event causes cruelty to animals. The court is now faced with the question of whether Kambala should be restricted to Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. Kambala is an integral part of Karnataka's culture, and there is now an opportunity to showcase it across the country. The central issue is whether animals are being subjected to cruelty. He also pointed out that horses are imported and exported to other states and countries for horse racing. He assured the court that any decision taken by the government will be communicated to the bench.
The court directed the state government to submit its objections and adjourned the hearing to November 5.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, 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.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
