2 IAF personnel drown in lake in Bhimtal as heavy rains pound Uttarakhand

Dehradun: Amid heavy rains in Uttarakhand, two Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel drowned in a swollen lake in Bhimtal, officials said on Friday.

Prince Yadav (22) from Pathankot, Punjab and Sahil Kumar (23) from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, were part of a group of eight IAF personnel, including four women, vacationing in Nainital, Circle Officer Pramod Shah said.

Locals joined the police in the rescue operation to pull Yadav and Kumar's bodies out of the lake after a struggle that lasted for almost an hour, he added.

The rains which have been battering the state have affected daily life with the closure of more than a hundred roads across the state, disrupting the Chardham yatra and causing food grain shortages in some villages in the Geeth area of Uttarkashi district.

The highway to Yamunotri has been blocked for the past five days ever since a massive landslide hit the shelters of construction workers at Silai bend, leaving nine people missing and washing out a 12-metre stretch of the road.

The road to Kedarnath also remains blocked due to landslide debris between Sonprayag and Gaurikund, making movement between the two points impossible, officials said, adding that efforts are on to reopen them.

Home Minister Amit Shah spoke with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday to assess the situation in the disaster-sensitive districts of the state, including Kedarnath Dham in the Rudraprayag district.

Dhami shared this development in a post on X, stating that the Home Minister assured him that the Central Government's emergency relief agencies, including the NDRF and ITBP, are being deployed promptly. This is to ensure that the Chardham Yatra remains uninterrupted and that devotees do not experience any inconvenience while travelling.

On Friday morning, boulders also blocked the Badrinath highway at several locations.

A total of 109 roads across the hill state are closed due to rain-related blockages, the State Emergency Operation Centre said.

Most rivers, including the Ganga in Haridwar, Alaknanda, Nandakini and Pindar in Chamoli, Bhagirathi in Uttarkashi and Kali, Gori and Saryu rivers in Pithoragarh district, are in spate, flowing just a couple of metres below the danger mark, officials said.

The Alaknanda river is in spate from Badrinath up to Rudraprayag. The water level of Mandakini has also been on the rise for the last three days, with its banks submerged under water.

The administration is making announcements through loudspeakers, alerting people living close to its banks.

The waters of a lake formed by an overflowing Yamuna river at Syanachatti in the Barkot area of Uttarkashi have begun to inundate houses and hotels located close to its banks, officials state.

Barkot SDM Brijesh Tiwari said that he visited the lake site to assess the situation, and an excavator was brought to remove the silt and unclog the lake's outlet. Efforts are also being made to reopen the Yamunotri highway, which has been breached at multiple locations, including Ojri and Banas. The prolonged disruption of this route has started to cause a shortage of food grains in the villages of the Geeth area, prompting locals to urge authorities to address the issue before it escalates further.

"Necessary steps must be taken by the administration to provide food and other essential items to the affected villages without further delay," stated Mahavir Panwar Mahi, a local social worker.

In Dehradun, the roads remain heavily waterlogged at Prince Chawk and the roundabout near Doon Hospital, where blocked drains and overflowing sewer chambers have added to the woes of officegoers and schoolchildren.

Similar weather conditions are likely to prevail in various districts of the state for the next few days, officials said.