Monsoon fury causes ₹799-cr damage in HP
SHIMLA: Heavy rains, floods, cloudbursts, landslides and related incidents have so far claimed 301 lives in Himachal Pradesh so far, besides causing monetary damage amounting to over ₹799 crore, as per the data released by the State Emergency Operations Centre. Eleven people are still missing.
As per the report, since June 13 when monsoon entered Himachal, 142 people have died in road accidents while landslides killed 51 people. Ten people died in cloudburst and 28 due to drowning while the remaining casualties occurred in other incidents. Maximum 44 people have died in Kinnaur – the tribal district battered by frequent landslide this year.
In a major landslide on July 26, nine people were killed after shooting stones hit a tourist vehicle at Batseri in Sangla area of the district. Twenty-eight people were killed when a major landslide buried a HRTC bus, an SUV and several other vehicles.
As many as 42 people have died in Shimla, 31 in Kangra, and 29 each in Chamba and Sirmaur.
The heavy rains have damaged more than 800 houses and 537 cowsheds across state. More than 500 cattle head have been lost.
PWD reels under ₹497-crore loss
The public works department (PWD) has suffered maximum losses amounting to ₹497.75 crore. Infrastructure worth ₹221.18 crores of the Jal Shakti Department was washed out. The power department suffered losses amounting to ₹43.7 crore, agriuculture ₹27.66 crore, and horticulture ₹25.22 crore.
The state government, during the recently concluded monsoon session of the state assembly, had said that climate change is affecting not just Himachal and India but the world.
Government, in the Vidhan Sabha, had attributed unseasonal rain, hailstorm and snowfall.
Besides the extreme weather conditions, deforestation, urbanisation, hydro projects and mining were others reasons stated by the Jal Shakti minister for triggering disasters.
Meanwhile, rain triggered landslides caused damage to a make-shift structure on the main Tutti Kandi- Dhalli bypass. A tree was uprooted near Khalining due to landslide on the main Tutti Kandi Khalini bypass, one truck and three cars were also damaged.