The Foreign Office (FO) received permission from India to use its airspace for humanitarian aid flights to Sri Lanka to provide flood relief, diplomatic sources confirmed to media on Monday.
The Sri Lankan government called for international aid and used military helicopters to reach people stranded by flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah. At least 355 people have been killed, Sri Lankan officials said on Monday, with another 366 still missing.
An official in the foreign ministry told media that earlier this evening, the Indian high commission sent written confirmation allowing humanitarian overflights through Indian airspace. The flights have been cleared to start tomorrow.
The toll in deadly flooding and landslides across parts of Asia climbed past 1,100 on Monday as Sri Lanka and Indonesia deployed military personnel to help survivors.
Separate weather systems brought torrential, extended rainfall to the entire island of Sri Lanka and large parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra, southern Thailand and northern Malaysia last week.
Much of the region is currently in its monsoon season but climate change is producing more extreme rain events and turbocharging storms.
The relentless rains left residents clinging to rooftops awaiting rescue by boat or helicopter, and cut entire villages off from assistance.
India and Pakistan have closed their airspaces to each other’s aircraft since tensions between them escalated in April in the wake of an attack in India-occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 people and the subsequent four-day conflict. In October, Islamabad extended the airspace ban until November 24.
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