Himachal cloudbursts: Rescuers spot victim under boulder in Mandi, hunt for 45 missing continues

Shimla: Rescuers are attempting to blast a boulder under which a victim was found trapped in Rajban village in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district where five people remain missing on Saturday.

The hunt for about 45 people, who went missing after cloudbursts in Shimla, Kullu and Mandi, resumed this morning.  According to officials, 410 rescuers from teams of the Army, NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, CISF, Himachal Pradesh Police and home guards are involved in the hunt with the help of drones.

On Friday, the death toll rose to eight in the flash floods triggered by a series of cloudbursts in Kullu’s Nirmand, Sainj and Malana; Mandi's Padhar and Shimla's Rampur subdivision on the night of July 31.

"A combined rescue operation is underway and efforts are afoot to search for the missing people. We are using various equipment and sensors to detect victims buried or trapped under the debris," said NDRF Commanding Officer Karam Singh whose team along with others is engaged in searching for the missing people in Samej village on the border of Shimla and Kullu district.

Of the total, over 30 people are missing in Samej village, which falls under Rampur subdivision of Shimla district.

"The possibility of rescuing people alive is diminishing with each passing hour but we just hope that the bodies are recovered soon as delay would lead to decaying of bodies which would make identification difficult," said Pradhan of Gram Sarpara Mohan Lal Kaptiya.

Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur on Saturday visited the Sainj area in Kullu district and interacted with the affected families.

He said that some of the victims are still awaiting the relief fund and asked the administration to provide help at the earliest.

On Friday, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who visited Samej village, announced an immediate relief of Rs 50,000 for the victims and said they would be given Rs 5,000 monthly for rent for the next three months along with gas, food and other essential items.

He also said that 115 houses, 23 cowsheds, 10 shops and three fish farms have perished in this disaster besides motorable, footbridges and vehicles in cloudburst since Wednesday night. 

Around 300 people stranded around Shrikhand Mahadev in Kullu and about 25 tourists at Malana were safe, Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena had said on Friday.