India must be prepared for more intense heat waves to come, the country’s meteorological department said, as the South Asian nation recorded unusual heat in April along with other countries in the region.

Large parts of Asia, from India to southern China to Thailand, was enveloped for weeks with intense heat waves that set in unusually early this year.

Though April is typically one of the warmest months, 2023 saw countries including Laos, Thailand and Myanmar experiencing their highest recorded temperatures of between 42 C to more than 45 C.

Temperatures in India’s Prayagraj district and eastern Odisha state had exceeded 44 C in mid-April, while at least 13 people died and more than 50 others taken to hospital from heatstroke in the western Maharashtra state.

Heat waves are common between March and July in the country, but the hot spells have become more intense, more frequent and longer in recent years.

India and Pakistan saw more severe heat waves in 2022, recording the highest March temperatures since records began over 120 years ago, but the scorching April heat this year appears to have affected a much wider area.

The Indian Meteorological Department is expecting above-average temperatures and heat waves until the end of May.

A wild elephant who sparked a massive debate and a legal battle in the southern Indian state of Kerala has been relocated to a tiger reserve.

Officials claim Arikomban (“rice tusker” in the Malayalam language) – named for his raids on local shops for rice – has killed seven people.

Locals near his original habitat had demanded his relocation for months.

On Saturday, he was tranquillised and shifted to Periyar Tiger Reserve, around 80km (50 miles) away.

Government authorities have called the mission a success – they say they are monitoring Arikomban’s movements, and have received the first set of signals from a radio collar attached to him.

But activists say the debate points to a larger issue of human-wildlife conflict and cannot be solved by displacing one animal.

According to the last elephant census in 2017, India has close to 30,000 wild elephants – around 60% of all wild Asian elephants. Loss of habitat and fragmentation often force them to enter human habitats and raid crops, leading to conflicts.

Arikomban, believed to be more than 30 years old, was a familiar sight for people who lived near the Devikulam forest range in Idukki district for decades.

Locals said earlier, when huts in the area were made of bamboo and grass, the elephant caused little damage when he came foraging for food.

But as the population grew and houses made of concrete became common, the elephant started damaging buildings and having run-ins with humans, leading to protests from locals.

Activists had raised concerns about Arikomban being turned into a captive elephant
Initially, the state forest department planned to capture Arikomban and make him a trained captive elephant. But animal welfare activists petitioned the Kerala high court against this.

The government told the court that the elephant had killed seven people. Activists have questioned this.

“During our inquiry in the area, tribal people said that Arikomban had not killed anyone,” says Sreedevi S Kartha, a member of People for Animals, one of the organisations that filed the plea in court.

The high court then formed a five-member committee, which recommended that the elephant be captured and relocated to an area where there would be little chance of conflict with humans.

The panel’s initial suggestion of moving the elephant to the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in Palakkad district sparked protests from people living there.

The Kerala government then approached the Supreme Court to appeal against the high court’s order to relocate Arikomban. The top court, however, refused to interfere in the matter.

The government then began scouting for alternative locations to move the elephant and began a massive operation – involving a task force of 150 officials – to track and capture it.

After a two-day-long operation, a tranquilised Arikomban was herded into a truck on Saturday and relocated to the Periyar Tiger Reserve.

Clean-up efforts began on Monday in the coastal city of Virginia Beach after it was struck by a destructive tornado over the weekend.

A state of emergency has been declared and schools have been shuttered as officials survey the damage, which includes dozens of damaged homes.

The tornadoes hit the US east coast over the weekend.

Another severe storm in Florida was powerful enough to flip cars and down trees.

City officials in Virginia Beach said there were between 50 to 100 homes that had been damaged by Saturday’s tornado, though teams on the ground are continuing to assess the storm’s impact.

“We don’t have all the answers right now,” said city manager Patrick Duhaney at a news conference on Monday.

“We’re working to get a whole host of information regarding to what extent the damage was, but we do know there’s been hundreds of homes that likely have been impacted.”

Drone footage released by the Virginia Fire Department showed several homes with their roofs collapsed. Virginia Natural Gas said it also responded to several homes with gas leaks.

How to survive a tornado
Mr Duhaney said there were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths, but first responders did make some rescue attempts during the severe weather.

The tornado began just after 18:00 local time (23:00 BST) on Saturday. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the storm registered as an EF-3 – meaning severe – on the Enhanced Fujita scale, a zero to five scale that classes twisters by estimated wind speeds and related damage.

Virginia Beach declared a state of emergency on Sunday, with temporary shelters opened for people whose homes were damaged by the storm.

The storm also forced the cancellation of a music festival hosted by musician Pharrell Williams on Saturday evening when officials deemed it unsafe for attendees.

Meanwhile, south Florida is recovering from tornadoes that touched down on Friday and Saturday.

The NWS office in Miami said Saturday’s tornado in Palm Beach Gardens reached wind speeds of up to 130 mph (209 km/h), and registered as an EF-2 – or strong – on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

The City of Palm Beach Gardens said in a statement that the tornado caused “roof, structural and vehicle damage throughout the city”.

Videos and images from the area showed the extent of the tornado’s damage, including overturned cars, broken windows and snapped tree branches.

One dramatic video captured by a motorist showed a car being flipped by the tornado on the US 1 highway.

The tornado also caused one apartment complex in North Palm Beach to suffer extensive damage to its roof, and boats docked nearby were upended from their moorings.

Authorities were forced to close major roadways to clean up debris and inspect wreckage from the storm.

Médanos de Coro National Park, better known by the original name Parque Nacional Los Médanos de Coro, is a beautiful national park which is located near the city of Coro, in the Falcón State, within the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Filled with mountains of sand, Médanos de Coro is a definite must see place while in the northern part of Venezuela, and with the spectacular scenery and plentiful activities, the national park is certainly one of the more popular spots in the country.

Covering an area of about 91 square km (35 square mi), the entire park is comprised of desert and coastal habitat which connects the Paraguaná Peninsula with the rest of Falcón State and Venezuela.

Divided into three zones, there is the alluvial plain which is formed by the delta of the Mitare River with additional small streams, continuing with the aeolian plain which is consisted of three different types of dunes, so that it would finish with the littoral plain with a belt of mangrove swamps.

Certainly, the most interesting feature of the park are the amazing dunes which change shapes and sized with the unrelenting winds, and some of them can reach a height of about 40 meters (130 feet).

The visitors are mesmerized every time they come here, where it is very common for them to climb the top of the dunes and then just jump and roll down through the sand.

In addition, there is the possibility for visitors to do some sand boarding, exploring the area with quad bikes, or even a romantic getaway with horse riding.

Established as a national park on 6 February 1974, Médanos de Coro is considered as an Important Bird Area where some 21 species of birds can be found, and in addition there are some lizards, rabbits, anteaters and foxes that can be seen throughout the area.

So that the visitors would have the feeling that they are in a desert, camels were imported and nowadays they offer rides among the dunes to those who are adventurous enough to get lost in a world which is so close to the civilization, and yet so far from it.