CHANDIGARH: With the recovery of one more body from the debris of the collapsed Shiv temple in the Summer Hill area of Shimla, the toll in the rain fury since Sunday night in the state has climbed to 74.
The deceased has been identified as PL Sharma, chairman, department of mathematics, Himachal Pradesh University.
Rescue operations are still underway in landslide-hit Summer Hill and Krishna Nagar in Shimla.
So far, 14 bodies have been recovered from Summer Hill, five from Fagli and two from Krishna Nagar in Shimla.
The temple premises were crowded with devotees on Monday when the landslide struck. Eight people are still feared buried in the debris.
“With the recovery of one more body today, the toll in three landslide incidents At Summer Hill, Fagli and Krishna Nagar in Shimla has reached 21,’’ said Superintendent of Police, Shimla, Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi.
As per the State Emergency Operation Centre, Himachal Pradesh has witnessed 113 landslides in 55 days since the onset of the monsoon.
The Public Works Department (PWD) has suffered a loss of Rs 2,491 crore and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) about 1,000 crore.
There are 17,120 landslide-prone sites in the state, out of which 675 are near-critical infrastructure and habitations, according to the data.
Since June 26, 330 people have died and 322 got injured in the monsoon fury, as per the State Emergency Operations Centre.
As per the Landslide Atlas of India prepared by the National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Hyderabad, all 12 districts of Himachal are susceptible to landslides.
As per the Met department, the state has received 742 mm rainfall this year to date. But on average, the hill state receives about 730 mm of rains during the whole monsoon season from June to September.
Himachal Pradesh CM, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said more Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) should be set up in the state to obtain real-time data related to weather forecasts, which would help in taking measures, well within time, he said.
Sukhu said that due to heavy rains, a large number of trees were uprooted in different areas of the state, adding that cutting and disposal of these trees and logs should be ensured properly. He also emphasized afforestation drives after normalcy returns.
For road blockades in Kullu district, he directed the authorities to make arrangements for a standby helicopter to airlift critically ill patients.
Sukhu visited the rain and flood-affected areas of Matehdi, Baldwara, Maseran, and Jukain of Sarkaghat assembly segment of Mandi district today and interacted with the people who suffered losses besides assuring them of all possible support from the Government.
He stated that the Union Government’s first installment of interim relief was still pending. He said that out of the relief amount of Rs 315 crore, a sum of Rs 189 crore has been released.