Heavy rains batter north India: Landslides claim 4 more lives, 200 stranded in worst-hit Himachal

With raging waters washing away cars and roads, submerging fields and gushing into residential areas, it was another day of rain havoc in parts of north India, particularly Himachal Pradesh where landslides claimed four more lives and more than 200 people remain stranded.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the intense rainfall spell over Himachal Pradesh and adjoining areas of north Punjab and Haryana is likely to continue on Monday and decrease significantly thereafter, while extremely heavy rainfall activity is predicted over northeast and adjoining east India during the next three days.

Several rivers, including the Yamuna in Delhi, in north India are in spate. On Monday morning, Yamuna crossed the warning mark (204.5 metres) in Delhi as Haryana released more water into the river from the Hathnikund barrage amid persistent rains in the upper catchment areas.

In cities and towns across the region, many roads and residential areas were submerged in knee-deep water with the civic system unable to hold on in the face of record rains on Sunday, July 9.

However, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at a press conference on Monday announced that evacuation of people from low-lying areas around Yamuna will start once the river touches the 206-metre mark, while assuring the people that experts have said the flood situation might not arise in the national capital.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday, July 10, asked the Centre to make available additional relief from the PM CARES Fund for states affected by the torrential rain.

"The death of several people in north India due to heavy rains is sad and painful. Have talked to the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh. Relief efforts in the state have picked up and every effort is being made despite bad weather, to take people affected by heavy rains to safer places," Kharge said in a tweet in Hindi.

"We have instructed all the Congress MLAs to help the affected people in their respective areas in every way. All Congress workers are requested to contribute to the relief. The Central Government is requested to make available an additional relief amount from the PM CARES Fund for Himachal Pradesh and other states," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with senior ministers and officials and took stock of the situation in the wake of excessive rainfall in parts of the country, his office said.

Local administrations, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams are working to ensure the well-being of those affected, the Prime Minister's Office said.

Landslides claimed four more lives in Shimla and the Shimla-Kalka highway was blocked Monday morning as heavy rains wreaked havoc in the hill state for the third day, police said.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said at least 17 people were killed in rain-related incidents in the state in the last two days. Himachal Pradesh has not witnessed such "widespread heavy rains" in the past 50 years and the state has suffered a loss of about Rs 3,000 crore in this monsoon season so far, said Sukhu.

Twenty people stranded in tourist town of Manali were rescued but more than 200 others were stuck across various parts of the hill state, officials said.

Four people died after a landslide struck a house in Theog subdivision of Shimla on Monday morning. The incident occurred in Pallavi village and the deceased were identified as Deep Bahadur, Devdasi and Mohan Bahadur, police said.

The body of an elderly woman, who was trapped under debris following a landslide in Rajhana village on the outskirts of Shimla city, was retrieved on Sunday night, hours after the body of her granddaughter was recovered from the site.

On Monday morning, the meteorological department issued a "red" alert for "extremely heavy rain", a day after heavy rain pounded the state, triggering landslides, and damaging houses.

Officials said rail operations on the Shimla-Kalka route, a UNESCO world heritage site, have been suspended till Tuesday as landslides blocked the track at several places while educational institutions across the state were ordered to remain shut on Monday and Tuesday.

The Shimla-Kalka National Highway was blocked near Shoghi, about 16 km from the capital city, following a landslide on Monday.

More than 120 roads are blocked in the district while 484 water supply schemes have been affected, officials said.

Sukhu, in a video released on Monday morning, appealed to the people to avoid venturing out in heavy rains, especially near rivers and nullahs, and remain vigilant for the next 24 hours as the Met department has warned of heavy rains to continue.

He also asked all the MLAs to stay in their respective constituencies and help the people in this hour of distress.

The Congress president spoke to Sukhu to express his concern over the deaths in the state.

"The death of several people in north India due to heavy rains is sad and painful. Have talked to the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh. Relief efforts in the state have picked up and every effort is being made despite bad weather, to take people affected by heavy rains to safer places," Kharge said in a tweet in Hindi.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday held a meeting over the torrential rains and the rising Yamuna water levels in the city.

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said the evacuation of people from low-lying areas around Yamuna will start once the river touches the 206-metre mark while assuring the people that experts have said the flood situation might not arise in the national capital.

The government is closely monitoring the situation and was fully prepared to tackle it, he said. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed all departments concerned to remain alert given a possible swelling of rivers due to heavy rains in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

In a review meeting following heavy rains, he asked officials to keep monitoring the situation, especially the river embankments, while flood units of the NDRF and SDRF as well as disaster management teams were directed to remain alert.

Rains battered many parts of Punjab and Haryana for the third day on Monday causing flooding at many places, as authorities scrambled to lead rescue operations to shift people to safer places.

The Punjab government ordered the closure of schools in the state till July 13 given the prevailing situation.

Chandigarh also witnessed record rainfall during the past three days, and a few roads were filled with rainwater.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed to people not to panic as heavy rains caused flooding at some places in the state.

Mohali, Patiala, Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Panchkula and Ambala are some of the worst-hit districts in the two states.

Given the prevailing situation caused due to incessant rains, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar cancelled all his pre-scheduled programmes for the day and summoned an emergency meeting of senior officials of various departments.

He also took stock of the situation with senior officials in the meeting in which Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal was also present.

With inputs from agencies