With the recovery of six more bodies, the toll in cloudbursts and subsequent flash floods in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district reached 11 Wednesday, even as the search is on for 34 missing people, officials said. The victim includes a woman, who along with eight members of two families had taken refuge on the roof of a house to escape flash floods, and were swept away.
The two families are from Pangloor village of Sainj panchayat in Gohar area of Mandi. The body of a woman, identified as Devku Devi (70), has been recovered while others including her husband Padam Dev (75) remain missing. The couple’s son Tilak Raj, who lives in another house in Bagha along with his wife and children, said that his parents were living at Pangloor to look after the farm land. “As incessant rains continued, my parents and Jhabe Ram’s family climbed the roof but the house was washed away,” he said.
The state reported 11 cloudburst incidents, four flash floods and a major landslide Tuesday, most of which occurred in the Mandi district. Cloudbursts were recorded at four locations in Gohar, three in Karsog, two in Dharampur, and one in Thunag. As per State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC), six deaths have been reported in Gohar, three in Thunag and one each in Jogindernagar and Karsog.
It said 148 houses, 104 cattle sheds, 31 vehicles, 14 bridges and several roads were damaged while 162 cattle perished. According to officials, 370 people have been rescued and 157 shifted to relief camps set up by the NDRF, SDRF and the Mandi district administration. A total of 245 roads, including 151 in Mandi, were blocked for vehicular movement.
The armed forces joined the rescue and relief work, and helicopters have been deployed to supply rations to the flash flood-hit Seraj area, they said.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who visited the Syathi village in Dharampur area and also conducted an aerial survey, said, “A special relief package will be given to help rebuild damaged houses and enhanced compensation will also be provided for the loss of livestock as well as for destroyed cowsheds”.
Locals informed the chief minister that the entire village was swept away they did not even have land left to pitch tents for shelter.
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Sukhu assured them if any government land was available nearby, it will be allotted to those who lost their homes. “In case the land falls under forests, the matter will be taken up with the Union Government,” he added.
Sukhu stressed the need for an in-depth study to ascertain the reasons for landslides even at places having solid strata. “Eight to 10 cloudbursts in a single night were never seen before. The central and state governments should collectively study the cause of such incidents,” the CM said.
Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, who too visited the affected area in his Assembly constituency of Seraj, warned that the number of missing people could increase due to disrupted connectivity in the region. He also called for rations to be air-dropped in areas where roads have been damaged.
The Jal Shakti Department reported damage to 3,698 schemes, including 2,786 drinking water supply schemes, 733 irrigation schemes, and 41 sewerage schemes. Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, who also holds the Jal Shakti portfolio, pegged the loss to water schemes at Rs 240 crore. He said 1,591 drinking water supply schemes have already been temporarily restored.
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Two teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), alongside police and home guards, are actively engaged in search and rescue operations in the district.
Light to moderate rain continued in several regions of the state.
Kasauli received 55 mm of rain since Tuesday evening, followed by Baggi 54.8 mm, Dharampur 38.8 mm, Mandi 36.8 mm, Sarahan 32 mm, Solan 27.4 mm, Pandoh 27 mm, Jubbarhatti 26.2 mm, and Shimla 24.2 mm.
The meteorological office has issued an orange alert, warning of heavy to very heavy rains in isolated areas across the state from Friday to Sunday.
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Narkanda was the coldest at night with a low of 13.4 degrees Celsius, while Una saw a significant rise in maximum temperature, reaching 36.2 degrees Celsius.
