The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday issued red and orange alerts for several districts of Himachal Pradesh for the next 24 hours. The weather office has issued a red alert for districts including Shimla, Solan, Mandi, Kullu, Sirmaur, Kinnaur, and Lahaul for the next 24 hours. An orange alert, on the other hand, has been issued for districts like Kangra, Chamba, Una and Hamirpur.
A flash flood warning has also been issued for some districts of the hilly state. Senior IMD scientist Sandeep Kumar Sharma told ANI: “A flash flood warning has been issued for Mandi, Kinnaur, and Lahaul-Spiti for the next 24 hours”.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Monday said the state has not seen such heavy rains in the last 50 years. He said bridges in Baddi, Kullu, and Una were broken and the Largi power project in Kullu was submerged in water. Sukhu said that the state has suffered losses to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore in this monsoon so far, with Shimla, Kullu and Manali being the worst-affected districts.
The Himachal Pradesh CM also directed Lahaul and Spiti district administration to provide adequate food, medicines and other essential items to stranded tourists near the Chandertal Lake. They were also directed to ensure rescue operations were conducted on time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to the Chief Minister and assured him of full support from the Centre. Due to extremely heavy rainfall over the last few days, Himachal Pradesh has suffered monetary losses to the tune of Rs 785.51 crore over the past few days. The highest monetary losses have been reported from Kinnaur (Rs 256.6 crore), Shimla (RS 190.65 crore) and Bilaspur (Rs 86.21 crore) respectively.
72 deaths have been reported in the state from June 26 till Monday, as per the state government. Eight people are missing whereas 94 are injured at the time of writing this story. The hilly state has reported 39 landslides, one cloudburst, and 29 flash flood incidents so far.
(With inputs from ANI)
Also Read: Monsoon mayhem: Himachal sees 72 deaths, Rs 785-cr loss amid extremely heavy rainfall