UNB, New Delhi :
At least 31 people have died in flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in four Indian states since Friday night, officials said on Sunday.
In the hilly state of Himachal Pradesh alone, 22 people have been killed in the past 36 hours and several others reported missing after bridges and houses were swept away.
“The deaths were reported from the districts of Mandi, Kangra and Chamba. Ten people are also said to be missing,” a senior disaster authority official told the media.
“Mandi is the worst-hit district, where 13 people have died so far,” the official added.
Local TV channels aired footage of rescue operations being carried out in Himachal. However, at many places, these operations have been hampered by heavy downpours.
Indian opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to social media to condole the deaths and urge the Himachal government to provide relief to the affected.
“There has been heavy destruction in Himachal Pradesh due to landslides, cloudbursts and floods,” Gandhi wrote on Facebook this morning.
Apart from Himachal, four deaths have been reported from the neighbouring hilly state of Uttarakhand and the eastern state of Odisha. One person died in Jharkhand.
“In Uttarakhand in particular, a series of cloudbursts across the state triggered flash floods and landslides that have claimed four lives so far,” a police officer said.
In the eastern Indian states of Odisha and Jharkhand, five people have been killed in the past 24 hours. “Four of the deaths occurred in Odisha,” another official said.
Landslides and flash floods due to cloudbursts and heavy rains are common in northern India in the monsoon months of July to September.
