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News18
5 days ago
- Climate
- News18
Uttarakhand Rain Havoc: Rockfall Damages Canopy On Haridwar-Dehradun Train Track, Services Suspended
Last Updated: In a statement, Himanshu Shekhar, CPRO, Northern Railways, confirmed that the damage is not major and that no loss of life has been reported Indian Railways suspended train operations on the Haridwar-Dehradun section in Uttarakhand on Tuesday evening after a large chunk of rock fell on the track canopy near tunnel T2. Speaking to News18, a ministry official said that the incident occurred around 6.45 pm in the single-line electrified section between Haridwar and Motichur, under the Moradabad Division. Motichur is about 50 km from Dehradun. 'The tunnel watchman reported the rockfall by phone at 6.45 pm to the Haridwar Station Master, following which engineering personnel, including the Assistant Divisional Engineer (ADEN) and Permanent Way Inspector (PWI), rushed to the site. The team reached the location by 7.30 pm to assess the damage," the official said. The rockfall damaged a canopy structure on one vertical support, prompting authorities to suspend train movement in the section as a precautionary measure. Senior divisional officers headed to the site. In a statement, Himanshu Shekhar, CPRO, Northern Railways, confirmed that the damage is not major and that no loss of life has been reported. Parts of Uttarakhand on Tuesday received massive rainfall, leading to reports of damage across the state. A massive mudslide caused by a cloudburst in Uttarkashi washed away high-altitude villages in Dharali. Four people were killed, and at least 130 people, who were initially feared trapped or missing, have been rescued. Several buildings, including 20 hotels, were washed away. The Indian Army has confirmed that nine soldiers are feared missing from a camp in the lower Harsil area. The India Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand during the next three days. The state has been under heavy rainfall, with several people killed in the last two days. The Rudraprayag district also faced a landslide that buried two shops under boulders and debris falling from the hillside. A man was swept away by the strong currents of the Bhakhra stream near Haldwani on Monday. On Sunday, two people drowned in a swollen stream near Bhujiyaghat on Haldwani Road. view comments First Published: Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
News24
08-07-2025
- Business
- News24
Deputy public works minister calls for equal regulation of public, private construction sectors
Public Works and Infrastructure Deputy Minister Sihle Zikalala wants the construction industry's private sector to be regulated the same way as the public sector. DepartmentPWI/X
Black America Web
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Murjoni Merriweather's Clay Sculptures Shape Black Style Into Renaissance Era Art
JD Barnes MURJONI MERRIWEATHER Artist Murjoni Merriweather is gifted with a rare ability: the potter's touch. With just dirt and water in her hands, she is able to form life-like images of the Black men, women, and children we see in our homes and on our street corners every day. Based in Maryland, the sculptor works delicately with clay to transform the formless faces of her imagination into inspiring, material creations. As she basks in her studio filled with shelved-rows of ceramic Black heads, it's clear Merriweather isn't just creating art: she's fashioning a spiritual army. 'I really see my sculptures as guardians. I see them as protectors,' Merriweather told HelloBeautiful . 'I am making my safe space, literally, and I'm hoping that my sculptures also give a safe space to other people.' Merriweather said she picked up clay work in the eighth grade after dabbling in different art forms (like graphic design and photography) throughout her childhood. She said after taking her first clay class, she fell in love with the feeling of cool, mushy, wet, mud between her fingers. 'I love to get dirty in my work,' she said. 'I'm a tangible person. I like to touch textures. And I've always been that way since I was a kid.' By the time she got to high school, Merriweather said she began to peruse the exhibition halls of museums in search of inspiration, but all she saw staring back at her were white, alabaster stone faces. 'A lot of sculptures in museums didn't look like me. And I didn't really like that,' she said. 'So, I decided to make work that looked like my family.' Murjoni Merriweather: Shapeshifter At first, her commitment to turning Black life into sculptured art wasn't well received by her peers. Merriweather said as a student at a PWI, there weren't many people who looked like her in the first place; so she decided to create the tribe she wanted around her. That mission inspired her iconic Grillz series, which features Black contorted faces decked out in gold-toothed smiles and skinny cuban-link chains. At first, the art was negatively critiqued by her classmates (to this day, some spectators call her work scary ) so she decided to make even more of them. A self-described 'hard-headed' person (about as hard as her dried-clay pieces), Merriweather said the art of proving others wrong is just as thrilling as making the art itself. 'I kept making them, and I kept making them, and I started making them in different ways, and then people started to enjoy it,' she told HelloBeautiful. Merriweather's dedication paid off. Her work went on to be exhibited in Sweden (where she sold all three of her sculptures) and Grillz became the featured work on display at the Walters Museum in Baltimore. The choice to exhibit her work in the renaissance section of the museum was a bold and disruptive decision made by a white curator, she said. At the time, there was only one Black sculpture on display, and it was one of a Black slave. The curator asked if she could fill the room with Merriweather's grill sculptures instead as a visible challenge to visitors' narrow perceptions of renaissance art. 'I was like, love that. Let's do it,' Merriweather said, 'And I got so many photos from teachers [and] parents with their children next to this big grill sculpture. They're like, 'That looks like my uncle. That looks like my dad.' The familiarity is such a beautiful thing to witness,' she said. The community's passionate response to Merriweather's work underscores her mission: to advocate for Black visibility at all costs, especially in an era where educational systems and governments are literally trying to wipe Black lives from history. Even how the pieces are shown is by design: they are required to be displayed at eye-level or higher, so exhibit visitors are never afforded the opportunity to look down on the image of a Black person. Merriweather said she often gets told her work is 'unsettling,' which she says tells her more about the viewer than it does about the art. 'I make work about Blackness and Black culture. So then my next question leads me to, what is your perception of Black culture?' she said. Every piece of pottery Merriweather produces is an attempt to publicly normalize Blackness. She said recently, she's been intentional about directing her outward creative process inward for her own nourishment, too. One of her exhibits, Seed , which was on display fall of 2024 at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, was created as an ode to her own personal evolution. The piece features unnaturally elongated, stone heads that appear to grow like blooms from various soil mounds on the floor. ' Seed was about my own healing, my own growth, how to ground myself,' she said. Creating Seed allowed Merriweather to work through her own impatience, as she reflected on the slow, tiny seed to green sprout germination system of nature. In a time where urgency and microwave-paced progress rules as culture's king, Merriweather urges artists to resist the impulse to get rich or famous fast. Instead, she believes the art of becoming is a miracle itself. 'We have to learn to slow down and be patient, and know that things are coming in their time. And that's what I was literally just talking about in Seed ,' she said, 'Learning about patience and growing my own seed. I can't rush it.' More Women To Know: Modern Mavericks
