Cloudburst, landslides in Uttarakhand; four dead, many families buried under rubble

Dehradun, Four people were killed and three went missing as heavy rains and cloudbursts wreaked havoc in various districts of Uttarakhand early Friday, triggering landslides that left about 30-40 families buried under mounds of rubble and damaged houses, officials said.

Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri and Bageshwar were among the districts hard hit by the natural calamity.

The Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority here said excess overnight rainfall damaged nearly half a dozen houses in Pausari Gram Panchayat in Kapkot area of Bageshwar district, killing two people and leaving three others missing.

Two bodies have been recovered so far in the incident while three other people are missing, it said.

Locals said that a toilet and the courtyard of a house in Genwali village of Budha Kedar area of Ghansali was hit by the landslides.

The security wall built by the irrigation department after the disaster last year also got washed away due to debris and heavy rains. Due to continuous rains, the Balganga, Dharmganga and Bhilangana rivers are in spate, triggering panic among the locals.

Potato fields were also buried under the rubble, former village head of Genwali Kirti Singh Rana said. However, there is no report of any loss of life in this.

The water level of Alaknanda and its tributaries and Mandakini river is continuously rising due to continuous rain. The police is alerting the people living on the banks of the river by making announcements.

The Badrinath national highway was blocked due to debris at many places in Chamoli-Nandprayag, Kameda, Bhanerpani, Pagalnala, Jilasoo, Gulabkoti and Chatwapipal.

In Rudraprayag district too, the Badrinath national highway is closed at Sirobgadh while the Kedarnath Highway has been blocked at four different places between Banswara and Kund to Chopta.

According to the administration, teams are working on the spot to open the route.

Pilgrims have been requested to set out on the journey only after taking information about the road and to follow the updates issued from time to time by the police and administration.

The MeT department has issued a red alert of heavy to very heavy rains for Bageshwar, Chamoli, Dehradun and Rudraprayag districts of Uttarakhand over the next 24 hours.

An orange alert of heavy to very heavy rains has also been issued for Champawat, Haridwar, Pithoragarh, Udham Singh Nagar and Uttarkashi districts during the period.

Uttarakhand has been hit hard by natural calamities in the monsoon season.

A devastating flashflood in the Kheer Ganga river on August 5 demolished nearly half of Dharali the key stopover en route to Gangotri with many hotels and homestays, and neighbouring Harsil, where an Army camp bore the brunt of the flood fury, barely giving time to the victims to run to safety.

A total of 69 people went missing, including nine Army personnel, 25 Nepali nationals, 13 from Bihar, six from Uttar Pradesh, eight from Dharali, five from areas close to Uttarkashi, two from Tehri and one from Rajasthan.