With the incessant rainfall for the past few days, which triggered cloudbursts, landslides, and road blocks, at least 60 people have died in the hilly states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Meanwhile, the administration has paced up the operations to rescue injured citizens and vehicles from under the debris.
Earlier, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast that isolated but heavy rainfall is likely to continue over Himachal Pradesh in the next two days and over Uttarakhand and northeast India in the next 4-5 days.
With heavy rains, the Yamuna River in Delhi breached the danger mark on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said, as quoted by HT, “Around 100 people are still trapped in Kangra, rescue operation is underway. Another body has been recovered in Shimla. The state has suffered a loss of around ₹10,000 crores. It will take around 1 year for us to redevelop the infrastructure of the state.”
Here are the top developments:
1) More than 800 people have been evacuated from the low-lying areas of Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra near the Pong Dam.
2) Due to heavy rainfall, all schools and colleges have been ordered shut in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday.
3) On Tuesday evening, one person was killed and five others were rescued after a building collapsed at Helang near Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district.
4) After two landslides in Shimla on Tuesday, Deputy Commissioner Aditya Negi said that rescue operations were underway at two places where landslides recently took place — Summer Hill and Krishna Nagar. Till now 13 bodies have been recovered from Shiv Temple in the Summer Hill area, while one body and one severed head were found in Krishna Nagar.
5) The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Tuesday airlifted 18 army soldiers in a single flight in Shimla.
6) On Tuesday, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhu held a meeting with High Power Committee for natural disaster management.
7) As per official estimates, over 60 people have died in Himachal, while 52 people died due to rain-related incidents in Uttarakhand.
8) The Badrinath National Highway has been blocked at Pipalkoti, Gadora, Navodaya Vidyalaya Pipalkoti, Gulabkoti, Pagalnala, and Vishnuprayag areas of the Chamoli district, said Chamoli police in Uttarakhand.
With agency inputs.
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Updated: 16 Aug 2023, 04:36 PM IST