CHANDIGARH: The death toll in Himachal Pradesh, which has seen a 157 per cent surge in rainfall over the past few days resulting in extensive damage in the state, touched 71 on Wednesday. Mandi and Shimla districts recorded the highest number of fatalities.
According to the state emergency operation centre, in total 214 people have died in rain-related incidents in the state since the onset of the monsoon on June 24 while 38 are still missing.
The body of a woman was pulled out of the debris of a collapsed temple near Summer Hill in Shimla on Wednesday. So far, 13 bodies have been recovered, while 10 are still buried.
The state is unlikely to get respite from the heavy rains, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next few days and issuing a red alert.
Sources said that some 15 houses in the Krishna Nagar area of Shimla have been vacated and the families shifted to safer places. Several others have vacated their homes themselves, fearing landslides due to incessant rains.
Over 1,700 people have been rescued from Indora (1,344) and Fatehpur (387) sub-divisions of the Kangra district. The operation to evacuate people from flood-affected areas is going on with the assistance of Air Force helicopters, Army personnel, and NDRF.
The Mand Bhogarwan area there lies surrounded by the Beas river, downstream from the Pong Dam reservoir. Over the years, since the Beas river received minimum flow downstream of the Pong Dam reservoir, people had started cultivating land on the riverbed and had also constructed houses there.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu conducted an aerial survey of Fatehpur and Indora in Kangra district to access the damage. He said that the state government was preparing a comprehensive, long-term disaster preparedness plan, earmarking around Rs 800 crore for its implementation, which was aimed at mitigating the impact of future disasters and enhancing the state’s resilience.
Sukhu said the estimated damage in the two devastating spells of heavy rain this monsoon season is about Rs 10,000 crore and it will take a year to rebuild the infrastructure in the hill state. About 1,200 roads are blocked in the state and as many as 10,714 houses have been completely or partially damaged so far.
Himachal Pradesh has already received 742 mm of rainfall in 54 days of monsoon this year against a season's average of 730 mm it records between June 1 and September 30, a weather official here said.
The rainfall recorded in the state this July broke all records for the month in the last 50 years.
(With additional inputs from PTI)