The Ministry of External Affairs (FO) has received permission from India to use its airspace for humanitarian aid flights to Sri Lanka to provide flood relief, diplomatic sources confirmed. Sunrise on Mondays.
The Sri Lankan government called for international help and used military helicopters to reach people trapped by floods and landslides caused by Cyclone Ditwah. At least 355 people have died, Sri Lankan officials said Monday, and another 366 remain missing.
A Foreign Ministry official said Sunrise that this afternoon, the Indian high commission sent a written confirmation allowing humanitarian overflights through Indian airspace. Flights have been authorized to begin tomorrow.
The death toll from floods and landslides in parts of Asia surpassed 1,100 on Monday, as Sri Lanka and Indonesia deployed military personnel to help survivors.
Last week, separate weather systems brought prolonged, torrential rain across the island of Sri Lanka and much of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia.
Much of the region is currently in its monsoon season, but climate change is producing more extreme rainfall and turbocharging storms.
Incessant rains left residents clinging to rooftops waiting to be rescued by boat or helicopter, and entire towns were cut off from assistance.
India and Pakistan have closed their airspace to each other’s aircraft since tensions between them rose in April following an attack in Pahalgam in Indian-occupied Kashmir that killed 26 people and the subsequent four-day conflict. In October, Islamabad extended the airspace ban until November 24.
