Nature continues to wreak havoc in Himachal Pradesh these days. Landslides occurred due to heavy rains on Saturday (July 26) in Duridhar village of Sainz Valley of Kullu district, which led to evacuation of 11 houses. About 20 people have been evacuated to safe places.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Tarul S. Ravish said that all the affected have been shifted to the transit camp set up in the rest house of Public Works Department (PWD). The priority was to save the lives of the people, which was successfully done. Technical evaluation of the area will be done soon.

Part of the hill started slipping, stones were falling- Panchayat head

Bhagatram Azad, the head of Sainj Panchayat, informed that the part of the hill behind the village had started slipping and stones were constantly falling, which created an atmosphere of fear among the people. According to PTI, the administration took timely action and evacuated everyone. Meanwhile, traffic on 213 roads including two national highways has completely stopped due to continuous rains in Himachal Pradesh.

140 roads are closed in Mandi district alone, of which Manali-Kotali Marg (NH-70) is prominent. The National Highway (305), which connects Sainz to Auut, has also been closed in Kakhasu and Jheda due to landslides.

82 people killed, 34 missing so far

According to the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC), 31 power transformers and 141 water supply schemes have been affected by rains across the state. During the monsoon starting from June 20, 82 people have lost their lives and 34 people are missing in the rain -related incidents so far. During this period, Himachal has been recorded in 42 times floods, 25 cloudburst and 32 times landslides. The joint loss of all these has so far been estimated at about Rs 1,436 crore.

Alert for heavy rain continued on July 29

Meanwhile, light to moderate rains received in many parts of the state from Friday evening. The Jats barrage recorded 33.2 mm rainfall, 33 mm in Palampur, 26.4 mm in Mandi and 8.4 mm in Shimla. Sundernagar, Shimla and Jubbadhatti also received strong rains with thunderstorms. The Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rainfall on July 29 in parts of Chamba, Kangra, Mandi and Kullu districts and ‘Orange Alert’ has been released.