Heavy monsoon rain accompanied by strong winds wreaked havoc across northern India on Sunday, leading to widespread landslides and flash floods that claimed 17 lives in the hills of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and J&K while five deaths were reported in the plains of UP, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
Distressing reports and videos emerged of shops being swept away in Manali and vehicles parked along the Beas river being carried off by flash floods in Kullu in Himachal, one of the worst-hit states, where a red alert was sounded for seven districts due to extremely heavy rain.
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In four separate landslides, seven people lost their lives in Himachal. Among the casualties, three members of a family died in a house collapse following a landslide in the Kotgarh area of Shimla district, while one death each was reported from Kullu and Chamba. A woman and son died in a mudslide in Shimla district late Sunday.
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The state emergency operation centre has reported 14 major landslides and 13 flash floods, resulting in the closure of more than 700 roads.
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In J&K’s Doda district, a landslide struck a passenger bus, resulting in the deaths of two people. The bodies of two soldiers who were swept away by flash floods while crossing the Dogra Nallah were found in Poonch district.
While there were reports of snowfall in J&K and Ladakh, Srinagar experienced some relief from heavy downpour, allowing the pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave shrine to resume from Panjtarni and Sheshnag base camps after a two-day, rain-induced suspension. The annual yatra started on July 1 and more than 650 pilgrims were left stranded on the Jammu-Srinagar highway due to inclement weather.
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Uttarakhand recorded six fatalities and significant disruptions. Many villages in the state’s mountainous regions have become inaccessible by road due to cave-ins and landslides.
A couple lost their lives when the wall of their house collapsed in the town of Kashipur, while a 45-year-old head constable Chaman Singh Tomar was killed after being hit by a falling rock in Uttarkashi district Sunday evening. He was managing traffic in the landslide-prone area on the Yamunotri highway.
