Kerala floods LIVE: Centre may not accept aid from foreign countries

Kerala floods: With rains easing and water receding in some areas of flood-ravaged Kerala, people started returning to their homes as Union Ministrer K J Alphons today appealed for cooked food and skilled workers to rehabilitate more than 1 million displaced people.

Though there has been some respite from the rain in the last two days, the water level has not come down in several areas of the worst-hit Ernakulam, Thrissur, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kollam districts, the officials said, a day after the Union Home Ministry declared the flood a 'calamity of severe nature'.

An estimated 350 people have lost their lives since August 8 in Kerala's worst floods in decades that has caused damage worth more than Rs 200 billion. About 1.078 million people, including 212,000 women and 100,000 children under 12, have been sheltered in 3,200 relief camps, officials said.

Rail and road traffic services have been restored in most places, they said.

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As relief agencies, local governments and people across the country banded together to put together relief supplies, the flood-hit in several parts of Kerala began returning home.