Monsoon Ravages: 43 Dead In Himachal Pradesh In Two Weeks, 37 Missing

Forty-three people have been killed and at least 37 are missing in Himachal Pradesh due to ravages of the weather – cloudbursts, flash floods, landslides – since the onset of the monsoon last month, officials said on Friday. The monsoon hit the state on June 20 and has cost the state Rs 5,000 crore in damages. 

Of the 43, 14 were killed in cloudbursts, eight in flash floods, and one in a landslide, while seven were drowned.

The most deaths, 17, took place in Mandi district where ten instances of cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides wreaked havoc on Tuesday.

A search is still on for 31 people missing from this district alone, officials said.

On Friday, the soldiers from the National Disaster Response Force rescued 65 people trapped in Bharad, Deji, Payala, and Rukchui villages after heavy rain. The downpour, followed by landslides, damaged roads and caused rivers to swell, which cut off many villages and deposited debris to people's houses and fields.

More than 150 houses, 106 cattle sheds, 31 vehicles, 14 bridges and several roads have suffered damage, while 164 cattle have perished in the various inclemencies.

Five relief camps have been set up to house the 402 people rescued, 348 of them from Mandi alone. Meanwhile, 280 roads, including 156 in Mandi, 49 in Sirmaur, and 36 in Kullu districts, were rendered out of bounds for vehicular traffic, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said. A total of 332 transformers and 784 water supply schemes have been disrupted in the state, it said.

The Local met office has issued an Orange Alert, warning of heavy to very heavy rain in isolated parts of the state from Saturday to Tuesday.

Intermittent rain continues to lash parts of Himachal. Aghar has received 71.4 mm of rain since Thursday evening, followed by Ghaghas 38.6 mm, Sarahan 36.4 mm, Nagrota Suriyan 31.4 mm, Kandaghat 31 mm, Karsog 27.4 mm, Murari Devi 24.4 mm, Kangra 22.7 mm, and Palampur 21.2 mm.