9 Killed In Rain Incidents In Uttarakhand; Chief Minister Takes Stock Of Situation

Nine people have died in separate rain-related incidents over the past 24 hours across Uttarakhand as Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday took stock of the situation and directed all district magistrates to stay on the alert.

One person is missing in the incidents which also left around half a dozen people injured. Two siblings were killed and a third got injured when the hut they were sleeping in was hit by a landslide in the early hours of Wednesday amid incessant rains in Gaurikund, the base camp of Kedarnath Yatra. This was the second landslide in Gaurikund in five days.

The shack near the helipad in Gaurikund village was hit by a landslide from the top of the hill, burying four of a family in debris, Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said.

A woman named Janaki emerged unhurt out of the debris while her three children got buried under it, he said. On getting the information, rescue teams reached the spot, pulled out the children and took them to a local government hospital.

Eight-year-old Sweety survived the incident and is being treated for injuries. Her younger sister Pinky, 5, and another small child, were declared dead at the hospital.

The family living in the hut was from Nepal. The children's father Satyaraj, a labourer, had gone to his village in Nepal.

The spot in Gaurikund village is just half a kilometer away from the place where three persons were killed and 20 others went missing in a landslide that occurred on August 4. Five people were killed and as many injured in two separate road accidents in the past 24 hours in Uttarakhand's Pauri district, officials said.

Four people, including a father-son duo, died when their car fell into a deep gorge on Tuesday night at Gumkhal, State Disaster Response Force official Praveen Rathi, who led the rescue operation, told PTI over the phone on Wednesday.

SDRF personnel rushed to the spot after the accident and launched the rescue operation.

The team initially brought out three bodies from the gorge to the main road with the help of rope stretchers, Mr Rathi said.

One more occupant of the car remained missing for hours after the accident. However, his body was recovered later, he said.

The deceased were identified as Chandramohan Singh Bisht (62), his son Atul Bisht (35), and two others – Dinesh Singh (63) and Kamal Bisht (45), the SDRF official said.

The four men were returning from Gumkhal market to their village Devdali located in Jaiharikhal area when the accident took place, he said.

In a similar accident near Mundaneshwar in Kaljikhal block of the district, one woman was killed and five others were injured when their car fell into an 80-metre deep gorge at 2 pm on Wednesday, the disaster control room in Pauri said.

A woman travelling in a bus was killed and another injured when a rock fell over the vehicle on the Rishikesh-Yamunotri National Highway at around 8 am. The vehicle was coming from Jankichatti to Barkot. A man died in Gadarpur area of Udham Singh Nagar district on Tuesday when a tree fell over him. He has been identified as 25-year-old Akshay. Meanwhile, Dhami took an update on the excessive rains pounding the state and asked all DMs to remain in alert mode. He asked all departments to keep coordinating among themselves so that rapid action could be taken in case of a disaster.

He spoke to the DMs of Rudraprayag, Pauri, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar on the phone and asked them to keep the administrative arrangements ready in advance to deal with any situation that might emerge in areas vulnerable to natural calamities. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)