Soldiers gather stranded tourists and villagers who were rescued in the state of Uttarakhand yesterday.
New Delhi/Haridwar: Swollen mountain rivers fed by heavy rains destroyed homes and property in many areas in north India even as the monsoon downpour continued. The death count in floods reached 60, and 60,000 tourists and pilgrims were stranded at various places due to floods and landslides.
More than a dozen helicopters were deployed in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh — the two states worst affected by flash floods — for relief and rescue operations and all stranded people are expected to be evacuated soon.
Army personnel carried out relief operations in flood-hit Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.
The river Ganga was in full spate in Haridwar and many highways linking Delhi, Haridwar, Rishikesh Yamunotri and Gangotri, and the Badrinath National Highway, were flooded.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been sent for rescue work in the two northern states where huge sections of mountain roads have caved in in many areas, leaving people stranded and posing problems for rescuers.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who was stranded in tribal Kinnaur district for nearly 60 hours due to landslides triggered by incessant rains, was rescued last morning. A helicopter hired by the Congress airlifted the chief minister as the weather cleared last morning.
Uttar Pradesh irrigation department officials said the Yamuna could touch the danger mark in Agra, Mathura and Vrindavan in a few days as more than 800,000 cusecs of water had been released from a barrage in Haryana.
Heavy rainfall has alarmingly increased water levels in Himachal Pradesh’s Pong and Bhakra dams, officials said yesterday. The dams serve the irrigation requirements of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
In Haryana, especially Yamunanagar and Karnal districts, rains eased yesterday.
Ten helicopters were pressed into rescue operations in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, as the weather improved.
“We are likely to get more private choppers for the rescue, but it is based on the weather,” M Shashidhar Reddy, vice president of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), said.
He said NDRF officials will be setting up a base camp in Gaurikund, 14km from Kedarnath.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday directed all central government agencies to assist in rescue and relief operations in Uttarakhand and assured Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna of all help, a statement said.
Condoling the deaths in the floods, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the central and state governments to provide quick relief and rehabilitation to the affected people and ensure travel arrangements for the stranded tourists, said a party statement.
She spoke to union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Bahuguna and Virbhadra Singh, and enquired about the situation in their states.
The meteorological department has predicted more rains over the next two days in northern India.
IANS
