At least eight vacant buildings collapsed on Thursday in rain-battered Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district, while one more body was recovered from the site of a landslide at the Shiv temple in Shimla. There were no casualties in the building collapse incident in Kullu’s Anni area. So far 25 bodies have been recovered from the debris of the three major landslides in Shimla alone—at the Shiv temple in Summer Hill (18) and in Fagli (5) and Krishnanagar (2), Shimla SP Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi said.
One body—identified as Neeraj, a Summer Hill resident—was pulled out on Thursday and two more are still buried in the debris. About 120 people have died in rain-related incidents this month, a total of 239 people lost their lives and 40 are still missing since the monsoon began on 24 June. Anni Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Naresh Verma said “seven to eight buildings” housing shops, banks and other commercial establishments besides houses had developed cracks four to five days ago. These were declared unsafe and vacated recently. The assessment of damage is being done and some other unsafe buildings along the National Highway have been vacated as a precaution.
The rains have led to the closure of 709 roads in the state. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Wednesday said that Rs 165.22 crore had been released to all the Deputy Commissioners and the line departments in the state for the restoration of damaged works. He has claimed that the state has suffered losses of Rs 12,000 crore so far due to the heavy rains.
Rains, meanwhile, continued to lash several parts of Himachal. Palampur received 137 mm of rain since Wednesday evening, Nahan received 93 mm, Shimla 79 mm, Dharamshala 70 mm and Mandi 57 mm. The local Met office issued a yellow warning of heavy rains for 25 August and predicted a wet spell in the state till 30 August. Apart from facing road closures, several parts were without electricity as 2,897 transformers were disrupted, said Principal Secretary Onkar Chand Sharma.
Himachal saw three major spells of heavy rains this Monsoon. The first, on 9 and 10 July, led to large-scale destruction in Mandi and Kullu districts. Shimla and Solan districts were hit during the second spell on 14 and 15 August while the capital, Shimla city, suffered heavy damage in the third spell on Tuesday night. The National Highway between Mandi-Kullu has been severely impacted due to heavy landslides near Pandoh and relief camps have been set up along the stretch of Pandoh and Aut besides Bajaura.
