Incessant rainfall and landslides have killed at least 66 people in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as operations continued to rescue the injured and pull out bodies from debris due to house collapses in several places, including Shimla and Joshimath.
60 people have died in Himachal since the heavy rains began on August 13, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said.
The weather office has predicted isolated but heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh in the next two days and over Uttarakhand for the next four days.
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Toll in Himachal reaches 60
On Tuesday, rescue workers recovered three bodies from the rubble due to landslides. One body was pulled out of the debris of a collapsed Shiva temple in Shimla while two people died in a fresh landslide in the city.
At least eight houses, including six makeshift ones, collapsed and a slaughterhouse was buried under the debris following a landslide in Krishnanagar locality in Shimla.
A total of 19 bodies have been recovered since Monday, 12 at the Shiva temple site in Summer Hill, five at Fagli and two in Krishnanagar. More than 10 people are still feared trapped at the Shiva temple, which collapsed on Monday.
All the schools and colleges in the state would remain closed on Wednesday due to inclement weather, an order issued by the education department said.
The weather office issued an orange alert on Tuesday (August 15), while a yellow alert was sounded for the next four days till August 19.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu chaired a meeting on Tuesday to review the prevailing situation in the state and emphasised that the Himachal government is fully committed to expediting restoration efforts on a priority basis.
“More than 800 people were evacuated from the low-lying areas of Kangra near the Pong Dam, as their villages became inaccessible due to the elevated water level in the dam reservoir. Evacuation operation is still on as more people are being evacuated,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Devastation in Uttarakhand
The toll in rain-related incidents rose to six in Uttarakhand, as two more bodies were found while seven were still missing. The state has been receiving heavy rains since Monday.
Also Read: 58 dead as heavy rains batter Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand; red alerts issued
A body of a woman, who went missing after water from a swollen river Pawar entered villages in Uttarkashi district’s Arakot area, was found on Tuesday, the disaster control room in Dehradun said. Another body of a 14-year-old girl, Tejaswini, was recovered from a rain-fed stream in the Lakshman Jhula area of Rishikesh.
A yellow alert has been issued for several places in Uttarakhand for the next four days till August 19. While the rain intensity may decrease over time, people have been warned not to venture out in areas that are affected by floods and landslides.
In another development, three people were rescued and a few others were feared trapped under debris after a building collapsed on Tuesday at Helang near subsidence-hit Joshimath in Chamoli district, officials said.
Also Read: Video | Two dead, many feared trapped as fresh landslide washes away houses in Shimla
Earlier this year, several houses in Joshimath were damaged due to land subsidence and since the onset of the monsoon, the problem has aggravated.
Meanwhile, the river Ganga at Bhimgoda Barrage in Haridwar started receding and was flowing at 292.65 metres, slightly below the warning level of 293 metres.