India battles monsoon mayhem: J&K death toll rises to 41; large swathes of land in north inundated

New Delhi: Large swathes of land in the northern Indian plains, especially in Punjab, were inundated by snow-fed rivers from the Himalayas and rivulets flowing in spate following incessant showers in their upstream, forcing train cancellations and school closures.

The death toll in the rain-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir rose to 41 on Wednesday, with the Vaishno Devi landslide accounting for 34 of the lives lost, as some let-up in the showers allowed relief efforts to pick up pace.

Normal life was thrown out of gear in the coastal state of Odisha by seemingly unending downpours brought in by a low-pressure over the Bay of Bengal. Down south, the southwest monsoon dumped copious amounts of rain in several parts of Karnataka and inundated low-lying areas of Telangana.

August has been the wettest month of the year so far for the national capital, recording 60 per cent above the normal rainfall. The water level of the Yamuna river flowing through the city reached 204.61 metres on Wednesday morning, remaining above the warning mark of 204.50 metres for the second consecutive day.

In the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, already reeling under the devastation caused by multiple landslides and flash floods, thousands of Manimahesh pilgrims remained stranded in Chamba due to rain-damaged roads.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has so far rescued 3,269 pilgrims.

Heavy rains, landslides, flash floods and cloudbursts on Tuesday wreaked havoc in parts of the state, and the overflowing Beas River left a trail of destruction in Manali, while mobile connectivity was snapped in the majority of Chamba district and Manali.

A total of 584 roads were closed in 10 out of 12 districts of the state. Reports from Chamba, and Lahaul and Spiti districts have not been received yet.

In neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir, which has set new rainfall records with Udhampur receiving 629.4 mm and Jammu 380 mm of rain in 24 hours since Tuesday morning, the swollen rivers showed signs of receding from 11 am. But the flood alert mark was breached by the Jhelum in Anantnag and Srinagar, and water entered several residential and commercial areas.

Massive damage has been reported to public infrastructure, including several key bridges, private houses and commercial establishments, due to overflowing of water bodies and flash floods across the Union Territory, officials said, adding more than 10,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying flooded areas.

A Border Security Force jawan was swept away by the strong current of a swollen stream in the Akhnoor sector. The body was later recovered.

As torrential rains disrupted normal life, Education Minister Sakina Itoo announced that all educational institutes will remain closed across Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday in view of the inclement weather.

The Northern Railways ordered the cancellation of 58 trains to and from Jammu and Katra stations, while 64 trains were short-terminated or short-originated at various stations in the division.

Rail traffic, which was briefly restored on Wednesday morning with six trains departing from Jammu after a day-long suspension, has again been halted due to flash floods and heavy soil erosion in the Chakki river area, the officials said.

The death toll in the Vaishno Devi landslide increased as rescuers pulled out more bodies from under the debris. Officials said 24 of the deceased have been identified, of whom 14 are females. With more people feared trapped, rescue teams are continuing to dig through the mounds of rubble to look for survivors.

The pilgrimage to the shrine remained suspended for the second day.

In Punjab, which is under the grip of a massive flood after days of heavy rains, the NDRF, the Army, and other agencies have intensified their rescue efforts. The Air Force airlifted 60 irrigation officials deployed to open the gates of the Madhopur barrage in Pathankot district, while one officer was missing.

The state government has declared a holiday for all schools from August 27 to August 30.

Despite that, 381 students and 70 teachers got stranded at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Gurdaspur's Daburi as four to five feet-deep water gushed into the school. While the teachers and students were rescued by NDRF and BSF teams, the school principal received a notice for not sending them home, even though a holiday had been declared.

The situation in flood-hit Pathankot remains grim as many villages have been inundated due to the rise of the water levels in the Ravi, Ujh and Jalalian rivers. These rivers surged following the release of water from the Ranjit Sagar dam due to showers in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

More than 2,000 people were rescued from flood-hit Ferozepur district in two days. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, after a visit to the Gurdaspur district, directed officials to press state government helicopters into service for delivering relief supplies.

Hoshiarpur district saw more than 8,000 acres of farmland in 44 villages submerged, while the water level in the Pong Dam reached 1,393 feet on Wednesday, with an inflow of about 1.62 lakh cusecs.

With water being released from upstream dams, the flood threat loomed over Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj as the water levels of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers neared the danger mark of 84.73 metres.

The Yogi Adityanath government scaled up relief efforts across 17 flood-hit districts as heavy rains disrupted life across the state. As floods affected 37 tehsils and 688 villages, 2.45 lakh people and over 30,000 cattle had to be relocated from the inundated areas.

Chhattisgarh in central India saw five people die and more than 2,000 people moved to safety after incessant rains triggered flash floods and inundated vast areas in four districts of the Bastar region.

Hundreds of houses were destroyed in Bastar, Dantewada, Sukma and Bijapur districts, where a downpour in the last two days led several rivers and rivulets to flow in spate, thereby disrupting normal life.

In the eastern coasts, the whole of Odisha received heavy rain, and its intensity increased after the low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal off its coasts became well-marked in the morning. The downpour in Koraput snapped road communication with neighbouring Telangana and Chhattisgarh.

Low-lying areas were inundated while rivulets and other water bodies were in spate in Kamareddy, Medak and other districts of Telangana owing to heavy rains. The South Central Railway diverted two trains and cancelled another as water flowed over the tracks.

Traffic in India's 'Silicon Valley' Bengaluru crawled as heavy rains lashed the city and several parts of Karnataka. The IMD has issued an 'orange alert' for coastal Karnataka districts.

Although the low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal is unlikely to have any direct impact on Gangetic West Bengal, an active monsoon trough is predicted to bring heavy rains in the northern parts of the state and parts of Arunachal Pradesh over the next few days.