Melting of glacier floods village in Lahaul-Spiti, people evacuated

The bus service of the HRTC is suspended on 899 routes and 256 buses are held en route.

Seven families have been evacuated in Kholaksa, located at a distance of about 3 km from Losar in Lahaul and Spiti district, following flooding due to the melting of a glacier. However, no casualty was reported.

Floods were witnessed late on Friday night and agricultural land was damaged. The seven families were shifted to safer places, Lahaul and Spiti Deputy Commissioner Rahul Kumar told PTI on Saturday.

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The melting of snow and glaciers has led to an alarming rise in the water level of several rivers and nullahs in the region and efforts are on to divert the water towards barren land, said locals. The Spiti region witnessed snowfall on July 9 and 10 and about 250 people, mainly tourists, were stranded at the Chandertal lake at an altitude of about 15,000 feet for six days. They were rescued safely on Thursday.

Himachal Pradesh has suffered losses of about Rs 8,000 crore as heavy rains wreaked havoc in the hill state, triggering landslides and flash floods and damaging roads and other infrastructure, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Saturday.

According to the state emergency response centre, the losses had amounted to about Rs 4,000 crore till Friday night and Sukhu had sought an interim relief of Rs 2,000 crore from the Union home ministry. People rendered shelterless following damage to their houses due to the rain would be rehabilitated and Rs 1 lakh would be given to each affected family, Sukhu said after visiting the rain-ravaged Shamti area in the suburbs of Solan.

He said the loss and damage have been immense and 70 families have been left shelterless, adding that such tragic incidents have been reported from across the state. The foremost task before the government is to restore the water and power supplies and make the state self-reliant in the next four years, Sukhu added.

About 70,000 tourists have been evacuated from the state and 15,000 vehicles sent out, while around 500 tourists have voluntarily decided to stay back, the chief minister said in a statement issued here.

Some tourists stuck at Kasol, Manikaran and other adjoining areas in Kullu district refused to move out without their vehicles and have decided to stay back for a few more days till the situation normalises and all roads are opened.

Due to a heavy landslide near Dunkhara on the Kasol-Bhuntar road, the vehicles could not be moved and the tourists had to trek to reach the other side. However the state government said these tourists are being taken care of.

Electricity, water and mobile phone services have been temporarily restored in 80 per cent of the disaster-affected areas and efforts are on to restore essential services in the remaining areas at the earliest, the statement said.

The bus service of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) is suspended on 899 routes and 256 buses are held en route. The HRTC has suffered losses of Rs 5.56 crore, officials said.

Meanwhile, Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla visited Pandoh and Aut in Mandi district and interacted with the affected people and inquired about the relief-and-rehabilitation work being carried out by the administration.

He also inspected a nearly 100-year-old bridge at Pandoh that has been damaged due to flood and announced to donate a month's salary to the relief fund. The governor said there is a need to learn lessons from nature and there should be efforts to ensure that there is no such damage in the future.

The local MeT office has issued an "orange" warning for heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places in 10 of the 12 districts of the state, barring Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur, from July 15 to 17 and warned of the possibility of landslides, flash floods, mudslides and increased runoff in rivers and nullahs.

It has also issued a "yellow" warning for heavy rain on July 18 and forecast a wet spell in the state till July 21. The state has received 284.1 mm rain so far in July, against the normal rainfall of 110.4 mm, an excess of 157 per cent.

Light to heavy rain continued to lash parts of the state, with Dharamshala receiving 144 mm rain, followed by Palampur (51 mm), Sundernagar and Nahan (45 mm each), Kangra (27 mm), Narkanda 22 mm and Mandi (17 mm).