CHANDIGARH: Six people remain missing following cloudbursts and flash floods in the Kullu and Kangra districts of Himachal Pradesh, while five bodies have been recovered as search and rescue operations continue. Joint teams from the National and State Disaster Response Forces, along with the police and home guards, are carrying out the operations.
So far, five bodies have been recovered from the site of the Indira Priyadarshini Hydroelectric Project in Kangra district, which was hit by flash floods on Wednesday. The search is ongoing for three others who remain unaccounted for. Lovely, a resident of Chamba district, was rescued by search teams from a forested area near the project site. She reported that there were 13 people in the camp; five of them ran towards the hills, while the rest were swept away by the floodwaters.
“We saw the floods coming and screamed to alert the people below before running to safety,” said Daya Kishan, a labourer at the site.
Work on the project had been suspended due to rain, and the workers were resting in temporary shelters when floodwaters from the Manuni Khad and nearby drains diverted towards the camp, sweeping several workers away.
In Kullu district, rescue teams are also searching for three people who went missing at Rehla Bihal following a cloudburst. These individuals are feared to have been swept away in the deluge.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Commandant Baljinder Singh confirmed that efforts are ongoing to trace those feared swept away from the project site.
According to the State Emergency Operations Centre, as of this evening, 53 roads remain blocked across Himachal Pradesh including 23 in Kullu, 16 in Mandi, four in Una, three in Sirmaur, and seven in Lahaul and Spiti. In addition, 147 water supply schemes and 135 electricity feeders have been disrupted due to the adverse weather conditions.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, alleged that labourers were housed in shelters built near a stream. He criticised the authorities for not relocating them to safer areas as weather conditions worsened, calling it negligence that warrants a formal investigation.