Char Dham Yatra suspended, water level of major touches danger mark.
Tuesday 19th October, 2021 | PNS | Dehradun | Pauri
Heavy rains triggered by the western disturbances took a toll on the lives and property in Uttarakhand. On Monday five people were reported dead in two separate incidences of landslides in the state. In Lansdowne Tehsil of Pauri three people died while two people were reported dead in Silkhola village of Champawat district. All parts of the state were under a wet spell on 17 and 18 October with many places reporting very heavy rains.
In view of the inclement weather the state administration has stopped the Char Dham Yatra till further orders. The pilgrims have been asked not to come for the Yatra.
Issuing a fresh alert the meteorology department has said that heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely to occur at many places with extremely heavy rainfall in isolated places of the state till Tuesday morning. Very heavy rain is expected in isolated places in Pithoragarh, Bageshwar, Almora, Nainital, Champawat, Udham Singh Nagar, Chamoli and Pauri districts.
In Pauri district heavy rains triggered a landslide in Chamkhal of Lansdowne in which five persons were buried under mud. This incident occurred at around 10.30 AM on Monday. In the rescue operation three people were found dead while two injured were rushed to the Base hospital Kotdwar. All the five victims were labourers working in construction site in Chamkhal area. According to the police three women Samnad (56 yrs), Nimri alias Sapna (30 yrs) and Alish (04 yrs) were reported dead while Rabiya (17 yrs) and Niyaz (56yrs) are undergoing treatment in base hospital’ Kotdwar.
As per the information available, the labourers were staying in tents in a construction site in Chamkhal area. Due to heavy rains, a landslide was triggered under which the tent of labourers got buried. Incidentally, the Lansdowne area received 229 mm of rainfall from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm on Monday.
The District Magistrate (DM) of Pauri Vijay Jogdande said that as soon as the information about the accident was received’ the rescue and relief work started and in it only two lives could be saved. Jogdande said that instruction has been given to officers concerned to give compensation from the state disaster relief fund within 24 hours. The DM said that five roads were blocked for transportation due to heavy rains in the district which included Srinagar- Chamdhar national highway and Kotdwar- Pauri national highway at two places.
