Himachal Pradesh Battered by Heavy Rain, Snowfall and Flash Floods: The worst flood in the last many years

The daily life of people in Himachal Pradesh stalled due to heavy rain and snowfall, in the upper hills of the state since last Saturday.

Massive sea like Floods caused by heavy rain and cloudbursts have brought devastation in several districts of Himachal Pradesh simultaneously excessive snowfall has cut off Lahaul and Spiti from the rest of the country. As a result of torrential rain eight people were killed and hundreds, including school students, remained stranded across the state.

Hundreds of roads comprising several national highways have been blocked because of rampant landslides across the state. The tourist town of Manali has been cut off from district headquarters Kullu and rest of the state following an overflowing Beas river inundated roads on either side of the river after incessant rain during the last 24 hours.

The grim situation can be judged from the video of a luxury bus being washed away in the flooded Beas river.

The neverending rainfall has been continued for the third consecutive day caused landslides and snapped over 200 road links, officials said, also a 'high alert' had been issued for Kullu.

Several parts of the state have been forced to see the apathy of landslides. Rescue operations to evacuate people in remote locations are going on.

The Indian Air Force jawans rescued two people stranded because of flash floods in Kangra district. As many as 20 people have been rescued from Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday. The place Rohtang Pass witnessed about four feet of fresh snowfall.

The worse scene for the spectators was that when they saw Scooters, buses and cars were washed away in the flash floods.

Not only that Roads, houses, and bridges were also washed away in many places and the Beas waters even flooded the Manali-Chandigarh highway.

Heavy snowfall was recorded in Kullu, Lahaul Spiti, and Kinnaur districts with 1.5 feet snow recorded at Rohtang Pass.

“After 1995, this is the first time that such a devastating floodlike situation is being witnessed. After finding 19 people stranded, rescue operation was launched as no other option was available,” said, State transport minister Govind Singh Thakur, as quoted by the Waether Channel India.

The continuous flowing of water of the Beas also flooded National Highway-21 at Dwara in Mandi district and forcing traffic on the busy route to stop. Traffic across the Mandi-Manali highway has been suspended.

A portion of road near Palchan has been so poorly damaged and it will take days to restore traffic along Manali-Leh national highway.

Among the death counts, three people have washed away near Manali late on Sunday night when their vehicle plunged into the swollen Beas River. Two people were washed away in the Parbati River in the Manikaran Valley, while one girl drowned near Bajaura. Both incidents took place in Kullu, which became extremely dangerous owing to flash floods.

A man drowned in a swollen rivulet near Palampur town in Kangra district and an another was killed when a building was washed away in a rivulet in Una district.

Several houses were swept away and demolished on the blink of an eye in flash floods as the Beas is flowing at a dangerous level, an official said.