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Three more bodies recovered as monsoon disaster toll rises to eight
While five bodies have now been found in Mandi’s Rajban village, one was recovered from Nirmand in Kullu and two in the nearby Rampur in Shimla
With three more bodies being recovered during the rescue operations on Friday, a day after the state was hit by several cloudbursts, the toll for the latest disaster has climbed to eight, officials informed.
While five bodies have now been found in Mandi’s Rajban village, one was recovered from Nirmand in Kullu and two in the nearby Rampur in Shimla. The two deceased whose bodies were found in Mandi on Friday were identified as Aman, 9, and Aryan, 8, officials said.
Rescue operations to trace over 45 people missing following flash floods triggered by cloudbursts in three districts entered Day 2, with the army, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) spearheading the charge.
Revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi, who has been overseeing relief efforts in Rampur since Thursday, said, “As soon as the flash floods struck, the district administration, with the help of police, CISF, ITBP, NDRF launched relief and rescue operations, which are continuing.”
Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and education minister Rohit Thakur also visited Samej on the border of Shimla and Kullu district to take stock of the situation and spoke to the victims.
“I visited the disaster-affected areas of Shimla and Rampur and shared the pain of my loved ones. I am deeply saddened by the loss of my loved ones in the disaster. Our government stands with the disaster-affected people with full sensitivity. We will leave no stone unturned in relief work with the help of all organisations. Once again the state has suffered huge losses due to the disaster. We will all face this challenge together,” Sukhu wrote in a post on ‘X’.
The CM was accompanied by Kullu deputy commissioner Torul S Raveesh, who also gave an update on the situation at the Malana II project in Manikaran area of Kullu district, saying 33 stranded people in total have been rescued since Thursday night.
Vikramaditya in Bagipul, PWD teams to set up bailey bridges
Public works department (PWD) minister Vikramaditya Singh, meanwhile, visited Kullu to assess the damages at Bagipul.
The minister said that mechanical bailey bridges have been requisitioned from Shimla and Dharamshala mechanical division and will be installed over by teams of the PWD department over the next few days to help with relief operations.
The Samej area of Rampur, Shimla district, near Shrikhand Mahadev also suffered massive losses, with several people going missing in the hamlets of Sarpara, Kurban and Ganvi after flooding in the namesake nallahs. Drones have since been deployed to trace the missing people.
Sumit Kedarta, a resident of Sarpara, said members of his family were still untraceable, adding, “Sarpara and Kurban faced the brunt with many still being missing. The houses of some of my friends were also damaged in Ganvi.”
“The situation was dire in Sarpara with mutilated body parts being washed onto shore,” he added.
Superintendent of police Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi said the searches continued in a 100-km radius, but some areas remained inaccessible.
