Kinnaur landslide toll climbs to 23, flow of Chandrabagha river normal

The Kinnaur landslide toll has gone up to 23 with the recovery of six more bodies as rescuers rummaged through the rubble for the fourth day on Saturday along National Highway number 5 connecting the border district with Shimla

The Kinnaur landslide toll has gone up to 23 with the recovery of six more bodies as rescuers rummaged through the rubble for the fourth day on Saturday along National Highway number 5 connecting the border district with Shimla.

Rescue work in progress at Negulsari in Kinnaur district, where a massive landslide was witnessed on Wednesday. (PTI)

“The bodies were found scattered within a 50-100 feet radius from the wreckage of the bus that was pushed down 70 metres from the highway in the landslide near Negulsari,” Kinnaur deputy commissioner Abid Hussain Sadiq said. “The rescue operation is being repeatedly hampered due to shooting stones in the area,” he said.

Teams of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), army and police along with local residents are engaged in the rescue operations, which chief minister Jai Ram Thakur said will continue till the last body is recovered.

On Friday, the Kinnaur district administration had released a list of the 13 people, including a woman passenger and two Nepalese labourers, who had boarded the bus on Wednesday.

“There was slight rain this morning. This tightened the soil and consequently, the shooting stones stopped. So we got more time to work,” said superintendent of police Sarju Ram Rana.

Chenab tributary back on course in Lahaul-Spiti district

The flow of the Chandrabagha river tributary of the Chenab that was obstructed due to the landslide on its course on Friday was back to normal on Saturday. The water has flown downstream through a channel formed naturally. As a precautionary measure, the district administration has put villages downstream on the alert,” said Lahaul-Spiti deputy commssioner Neeraj Kumar.

Chief secretary Ram Subagh Singh, state police chief Sanjay Kundu and state tribal affairs minister Ram Lal Markanda conducted an aerial survey of the area to assess the situation.