Kinnaur landslide death toll rises to 17

The death toll in the landslide in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur district climbed to 17 as rescuers recovered another body of a victim on Friday, a senior disaster management official said. Rescue operations resumed this morning to trace the 15 others still missing in the landslide that occurred near Chaura village in the district on Wednesday. While 10 bodies were recovered on Wednesday, four were found on Thursday from the landslide site. Thirteen others were rescued on Wednesday. So far, a Bolero car and its passengers, feared buried under the rubble, have not been traced, State Disaster Management director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said, adding that it the vehicle may have plunged into the valley. The NDRF, ITBP, local police and home guards are jointly carrying out rescue operations.

SHIMLA : The toll from the landslide at Negulsari in Himachal Pradesh’s Kinnaur went up to 17 after three more bodies were found from the rubble 70 metres downhill on Friday morning.

The bodies were recovered close to the wreckage of a bus with 22 people on board that was hit by boulders and buried under their debris.The landslide buried at least five vehicles on a road on Wednesday afternoon.

Police superintendent (Kinnaur) Sarju Ram Rana said the administration has deployed two excavators to reach the wreckage of the bus. “Manual search will continue besides two fork line machines have been deployed to remove the rubble to search for people feared trapped underneath,” said Rana.

State Disaster Management Authority director Sudesh Mokta said they have been unable to trace a car that went missing after the landslide and they also do not know how many passengers were in it. Army personnel, the Indo Tibetan Border Police, and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as well as sniffer dogs have been rummaging through the rubble for the third day.

Rescuers earlier recovered two other cars from the rubble. Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, who visited the landslide scene on Wednesday, announced the search operation will continue till the last body is traced.

Water receding from lake formed on Lahaul-Spiti river after landslide

Eighty percent water has receded from the lake that was formed after a massive landslide hit Jasrat village in Udaipur subdivision of Lahaul-Spiti, blocked the flow of Chandrabhaga River on Friday morning was receded.

Lahaul-Spiti deputy commissioner Neeraj Kumar said a portion of the hill caved-in around 9:30 am near Jasrath bringing down tons of debris into the river and completely blocked the river course. Later, a channel was formed naturally and water began to recede.

The villages down the stream, Tarang and Jasrat, have been put on alert. Kumar said the affected area had a population of around 2,000.

“Sixteen members of the four houses that were flooded have been shifted to a temporary shelter,” said Kumar.