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Himachal rain: Shimla landslide toll climbs to 16, five still missing
A joint rescue operation by the Indian Air Force and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is underway in Kangra to evacuate people stranded after excess water released from Pong Dam flooded downstream areas in Fatehpur and Indora sub divisions.
The toll in Monday’s Shimla temple landslide rose to 16 with rescuers recovering two bodies on Friday.
The deceased were identified as Shankar Negi and Avinash Negi, who worked as a PTI teacher in a local government school.
Twenty-three people have died in Shimla town in rain-related incidents since Monday, while 80 fatalities have been reported from across Himachal Pradesh.
The army, State Disaster Response Force and the police are engaged in the rescue operation at Summerhill, where six people are missing after the temple collapsed after the landslide on August 14.
A joint rescue operation by the Indian Air Force and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is underway in Kangra to evacuate people stranded after excess water released from Pong Dam flooded downstream areas in Fatehpur and Indora subdivisions.
As of Friday evening, 2,209 people had been evacuated from 27 panchayats.
3 dead as car falls into gorge in Sirmaur
A college professor was among three dead when their car skidded and fell into a gorge at Ronhat in Shillai subdivision in Sirmaur district late on Thursday.
The deceased, Ramesh Bhardwaj, 47, the acting principal of Government College, Ronhat, Jai Ram Sharma, 38, who was behind the wheel and Sakshi Sharma, 18, a college student died on the spot.
The victims were on their way from Ronhat to Lani-Borad to meet relatives, Shillai DSP Manvindra Thakur said.
Since the onset of the monsoon on June 24, at least 336 people have died across the state in rain-related incidents. As many as 117 people have died in road accidents.
Himachal Pradesh experienced scattered rainfall on Friday with isolated places getting light to moderate rain.
Nagrota Surian in Kangra got the highest 53.2mm of rainfall followed by Kasauli with 42mm and Kahu 20.8mm.
Shimla meteorological centre director Manmohan Singh said that the monsoon is likely to remain weak for the next few days. A yellow warning has been issued for thunderstorms and lightning at isolated places.
506 roads closed, 149 water supply schemes hit
According to the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), 506 roads, including three highways, are still blocked for traffic across the state.
The Mandi-Kullu, Mandi-Pathankot and Aut-Banjar national highways are among the blocked roads.
A maximum of 264 roads are blocked in Mandi, prompting the authorities to keep the schools shut in all sub-divisions except Kotli and Thunag. Sixty-nine roads are blocked in Kullu and 63 in Shimla.
Monetary losses cross ₹8,000 crore
The monetary losses in the state this monsoon have been pegged at ₹8,014.61 crore. The public works department has suffered losses amounting to ₹2,656 crore, meanwhile, the jal shakti department and the electricity board suffered losses of ₹1,842 crore and ₹1,707 crore, respectively.
Over 2,209 rescued from flood-hit Kangra villages in five days: DC
The NDRF teams have evacuated 135 more people from the flood-hit villages of the Indora subdivision in the Kangra district, taking the total number of rescued to 2,209.
Kangra DC Nipun Jindal said 54 people were rescued from Bela-Indora by boat on the fifth day of the operation. Others were rescued late on Thursday.
“The rescue operation in Fatehpur subdivision has been completed. Also, the IAF helicopters and Army’s disaster relief columns have returned to their base. Now, only NDRF teams are deployed in the area to carry out the rescue operation.
He said of the 2,209 evacuated, 994 were airlifted, 1,005 people were rescued by boat and 210 were brought to safety via tractor and trolley.
“Over five days 1,787 people were rescued from Indora and 422 from Fatehpur villages,” he said.
About 27 panchayats of Indora and Fatehpur were affected by the floods after BBMB authorities released excess water from the Pong Dam reservoir, which had exceeded its permissible limit of holding water due to high inflow after it rained heavily in the catchment of the Beas river.
