4 dead, 9 missing as heavy rains lash U'khand, Chardham yatra suspended

Four people were killed and nine others went missing on Monday as torrential rains pounded Uttarakhand, demolishing buildings and causing landslides which breached the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Gangotri shrines leading to the suspension of Chardham yatra for two days.

Rudraprayag district disaster management officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said a landslide hit a camp at Lincholi on Kedarnath trek route damaging four shops in which one person from Nepal was killed and a trader went missing.

The body of 26-year-old Kalu Bahadur has been found.

Two bodies were also recovered from rain-fed streams near Shiva temple and Miranagar areas in Rishikesh. One of them has been identified as 35-year-old Dinesh Panwar, a resident of Amit Gram. The other body is being identified, DSP Sandeep Negi said.

 

A body was recovered in Laxmanjhula area of Pauri district where five people went missing after a landslide, according to a bulletin by the state disaster control room.

As many as 114 workers were trapped inside a tunnel called 'Edit-II' of the Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail line project when the water of a flooded stream in Shivpuri area gushed into it. The tunnel was filled with water up to four metres, Muni-Ki-Reti police station SHO Ritesh Shah said.

A police team rushed to the spot and flushed out the water accumulated inside the tunnel, Shah said, adding all 114 workers were rescued with the help of ropes.

A bridge in Bantoli in Madyamaheshwar valley in Garhwal district broke down leaving more than 100 Madyamaheshwar-bound pilgrims stranded.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting with senior officials to review the situation in the state and the Chardham yatra was supspended for two days till August 15.

A defence training academy on the outskirts of Dehradun also collapsed, the officials said.

Located on the banks of Song river near Lalpul, the building of the Dehradun Defence Academy caved in on Monday morning, Tehri Sub-Divisional Magistrate Ashish Ghildiyal said.

No one was injured as the building had been vacated in advance, he said.

It is a private institution whose building was constructed 15 years ago, former Zilla panchayat member Akhilesh Uniyal said.

Incessant rains also triggered landslides in many areas of the state.

Heavy rains triggered the landslide in Laxmanjhula area whose debris fell on a resort in the area trapping five people under it, Senior Superintendent of Police, Pauri, Shweta Choubey earlier told PTI over phone.

Rescue and relief teams reached the spot and a search operation was started, she said.

Chief Minister Dhami, in a Facebook post, said heavy casualties have been reported due to rains in Pauri which is "extremely sad".

One man went missing after a landslide in Pipalkoti, a woman was washed away in a canal in Uttarkashi and a family of three including a mother and her two teenaged children went missing when their car was washed away by the floodwaters two km beyond Rishikesh barrage towards Neelkanth.

Dhami instructed officials to maintain vigilance round-the-clock in view of the MeT department issuing a red alert for heavy to very heavy rains in six districts of the state.

The Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for Monday in six districts of Uttarakhand, including Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Champawat, and issued an orange alert for heavy to very heavy rain in Haridwar.

Most of the rivers were overflowing with the Ganga flowing above the danger mark in Tehri, Haridwar and Rishikesh.

The situation in Haridwar is alarming as the Ganga is flowing at 295.60 metres, 1.60 metres above the danger mark.

Floodwaters entered more than two dozen villages in Haridwar district and sugarcane crops over 100 bighas of land destroyed, the officials said.

Ganga waters also entered the Bairagi camp in Haridwar.

Alaknanda, Mandakini and Ganga rivers were flowing above the danger level at Rudraprayag, Shrinagar and Devprayag, the disaster control room here said.

The Badrinath National highway is blocked at a number of places due to landslide debris.

In Chamoli district, a flood-like situation has developed along the banks of a dozen rivers, including Alaknanda and its tributaries Pindar, Nandakini and Birhi.

Pindar's tributary Pranmati was also flooded due to landslide. Landslides in the upper reaches of Nandakini have caused the water level of the river to increase in the lower areas.

There are reports of loss of lives due to landslides in Pipalkoti town and surrounding areas on Badrinath National Highway.

Heavy rains have also inundated various low-lying areas in Rishikesh, including Chandreshwar Nagar and Sheesham Jhari.

The rural areas near Rishikesh have been flooded with the State Disaster Response Force evacuating people to a safer places.