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Three more bodies recovered from Shimla’s Summer Hill temple
The same also brought an end to the search and rescue operations at Shimla’s Summer Hill temple, that had been underway for the past 11 days, to an end
Rescue workers on Thursday recovered three more bodies from the landslide site at Summer Hill, bringing the total toll of the incident to 20.
The same also brought an end to the search and rescue operations that had been underway for the past 11 days.
The deceased have been identified as Neeraj Thakur, Pawan Sharma and his grand-daughter Samaira. Sharma’s wife, son, daughter-in-law and two other grand-daughters had also died in the incident.
JE swept away while restoring water supply
Meanwhile, a Jal Shakti department junior engineer (JE) was swept away in Baner rivulet in Kangra while trying to restore a water supply scheme.
The missing has been identified as Rajesh Chaudhary, who was posted in Daulatpur section of Shahpur circle. The incident took place at Jalari pump house. Police and SDRF team have reached the spot and search operation is underway to find Chaudhary.
“JE Rajesh Chaudhary was swept away in strong currents of rivulet in Kangra. Rescue teams have reached the spot,” deputy chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, who also holds the Jal Shakti portfolio, wrote on his social media handles.
In Mandi, the district administration airdropped ration and medicine in the remote Kashodidhar area with the help from the Air Force. The operation will continue on Friday, an information and public relation department spokesperson said.
Season’s death toll climbs to 367
The casualties for the monsoon season have now risen to 367. Of these, as many 242 people died in rain-related incidents and 125 in road accidents.
A total of 177 people have been killed in August month alone — 124 of them rain related incidents.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh continued to bear the brunt of incessant rain triggering landslides, leading to buildings collapsing at Anni in Kullu district and blocking four highways on Thursday even as the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert, predicting heavy to very rainfall in six districts of the state.
Though the MeT department forecast the wet spell to last till August 29, the red alert was issued for two days in Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, Solan and Sirmaur districts.
“There is an orange alert for Hamirpur and Bilaspur,” Surender Paul, director of IMD’s Shimla centre said.
Nearly 700 roads remain blocked across the state due to landslides, including the four national highways connecting Kullu-Mandi, Mandi-Pathankot, Kalka-Shimla and Theog-Hatkoti.
According to reports, the Kullu-Mandi highway was damaged after Wednesday’s heavy rain, leaving commuters stranded.
