NEW DELHI: Over the last two days, torrential rains have been pounding several parts of north India, leaving 18 people killed in landslides and other rain-related incidents.
Most of the rivers were in flowing in full capacity, including the Yamuna in Delhi. Several cities and towns across the northern region were submerged in knee-deep water, with many roads and residential areas inundated and the civic system unable to cope in the face of record rains.
Fearsome images of the fury of the rains have been doing the rounds. Among others, images shared online by people from Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi featured vehicles floating like toys on inundated roads, muddy waters with debris rushing into residential areas, temples and bridges submerged on the banks of the swollen rivers and landslides cutting off roads.
The met office has warned of heavy downpours in areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, while Delhi recorded its highest rainfall in a single day in July since 1982.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Delhi received 153 mm of rain in 24 hours ending 8:30 on Sunday. Meanwhile, Chandigarh and Ambala in Haryana also reported a record rainfall of 322.2 mm and 224.1 mm.
In Himachal Pradesh, Solan recorded 135 mm of rain on Sunday, breaking a 50-year-old record of one-day rainfall of 105 mm in 1971, even as Una received the highest rainfall since 1993, Director of Shimla Meteorological Office, Surender Paul said.
Even as normal life remained paralysed, schools in Delhi and its adjoining NCR cities of Gurugram and Noida also remained closed on Monday, said officials.
Railway services in the northern part of the country have also been hit. The Northern Railways cancelled around 17 trains and diverted 12 others.
Three separate incidents of landslides were reported in Himachal Pradesh and five people were killed. A red alert of extremely heavy rains in 10 districts has been issued.
A house collapse following a landslide in Shimla district’s Kotgarh area led to three members of a family being killed, while one death each was reported from districts of Kullu and Chamba.
On the outskirts of Shimla city, a girl was buried In Rajhana village as a huge amount of debris swept by rainwater fell on her house.
In the past 36 hours, 14 major landslides and 13 flash floods have been reported while over 700 roads have been closed, the Himachal Pradesh emergency operation centre informed.
All schools and colleges affiliated with the state will be closed for Monday and Tuesday, as ordered by the Himachal Pradesh government. There were also reports of shops being swept away in Manali, and vehicles being washed away in flash floods at Nullah in Kullu, Kinnaur and Chamba.
In the nearby state of Uttarakhand, three pilgrims were drowned in the Ganga river when their jeep fell into it during a landslide that occurred near Gular on the Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway.
Of the 11 people in the jeep, State Disaster Response Force and police officials said they rescued five people, while a search is going on for three others, while adding that three bodies have been recovered by rescue personnel.
Two houses in the Kashipur area of the state collapsed after heavy rainfall, killing a couple living there and causing injuries to their granddaughter.
In Jammu and Kashmir, two people were killed after a landslide hit a passenger bus in Doda district, while in Ladakh’s Kargil district, a man was killed after his vehicle got crushed under a boulder that rolled down a hillock along the along Leh-Srinagar national highway.
Bodies of two soldiers were recovered in Poonch district. They were swept away by flash floods while crossing the Dogra Nallah on Saturday.
However, after some relief in Srinagar from heavy downpour, the Amarnath yatra resumed from the Panjtarni and the Sheshnag base camps on Sunday, after remaining suspended for three days.
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