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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rain rage wrecks hill states

Rain rage wrecks hill states

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published Published on Jun 18, 2013   modified Modified on Jun 18, 2013
-The Telegraph


At least 50 people have died in rain-triggered landslides, house collapses and flash floods in the north, mostly in Uttarakhand that has halted the popular Badrinath pilgrimage with around 30,000 pilgrims, many from Bengal, stranded.

Three days of incessant rain have sent into spate Uttarakhand rivers that have burst banks and washed away houses - one of them a four-storey structure that had been vacated, apart from a temple.

At least 30 people have died in the hill state so far, officials said amid fears the toll could go up further.

Eight persons were pulled out of debris of collapsed houses in Dehradun alone. The state capital received 220mm of rain over the weekend - sinking an 80-year record for a two-day spell. The weather department has forecast more rain over the next 24 hours.

The government has suspended the Chardham Yatra that began on June 15 after five bodies were found today in Kedarnath, one of the four points of the tour besides Yamunotri, Gangotri and Badrinath.

The officials said the over 30,000 pilgrims on way to the four destinations had been stranded at various points, many in Hardwar and Rishikesh from where they head uphill, after a series of landslides.

The relatives of Chiranjit Dey from Bankura's Kotulpur are among the stranded pilgrims. "My father-in-law said he and his family were safe at a lodge in Badrinath. But there is a shortage of food. They had been eating only rice since Saturday," the pharmacist said today.

Over two lakh visitors usually arrive for the yatra in the hill state, which has been caught off guard this time by the early arrival of the monsoon and its ferocity. The rains normally arrive in the region in late June or early July.

"We fear more than 50 people are missing following a cloudburst in Rudraprayag this morning," said M. Shashidhar Reddy, vice-president of the National Disaster Management Authority that is helping in the rescue alongside the ITBP and state police. Choppers are being used to ferry stranded people from some areas.

In pilgrim town Uttarkashi yesterday, a three-storeyed house on the banks of the river Bhagirathi - a tributary of the Ganga - caved in and five buses waiting for passengers were swept away, Reddy said. River waters have entered markets in many areas.

The Uttarakhand torrent spilled over to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur with at least 15 people killed in flash floods.

The monsoon misery didn't spare Himachal Pradesh either, with reports of at least 10 deaths, most of them from landslides.

Chief minister Virbhadra Singh has been stuck since yesterday at Sangla in Kinnaur district where he had gone to campaign for a June 23 bypoll. A chopper sent to ferry him from the remote pocket couldn't land because of bad weather and had to return to Shimla.

"The chief minister has been stuck since yesterday evening. Efforts are being made to airlift him as soon as the weather permits," chief secretary S. Roy said. The rains have come in the middle of the tourist season and prompted many to pack up and head home. "Kalpa in Kinnaur recorded 202mm of rain in the past 24 hours, a record for June," said Manmohan Singh, the director of the Met department. Ponta Sahib in Sirmour received 405mm, the highest since June 1980.

The rain-fed surge swelled the Yamuna, whose rising waters threatened downstream Haryana, and raised the spectre of floods in Delhi.


The Telegraph, 18 June, 2013, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130618/jsp/nation/story_17019824.jsp#.UcAsKdjcjco


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