Two killed as heavy rain lashes U’khand

Dehradun, July 6

Heavy overnight rains lashed a number of places across Uttarakhand, where two persons died in Nainital district after debris from a landslide hit nearly a dozen houses and the administration issued an alert for people living near lakes and rivers.

Schools in most districts, including Nainital, Dehradun and Haridwar, remained closed in view of the MeT department warning of heavy rain.

Official sources said that one person died as a tree uprooted by heavy rain fell over him in Nainital city whereas another drowned while attempting to cross a river near Ramnagar in the district, official sources said.

Traffic along Mall Road–Birla school route in Nainital was badly affected with heavy rain causing a landslide from which mud and slush flowed down to the mall road hitting nearly a dozen houses on the way.

However, no injury to anyone was reported with debris from the landslide.

As a precautionary measure, an alert was issued for the people living near rivers and streams in Nainital district where heavy rains could send them into spate.

There were reports of trees falling down and interrupting transportation from different places in and around the city.

Control rooms were put on alert and leave of government officials in the district have been cancelled with immediate effect till tomorrow, the sources said.

Electricity and water supply has also been hit due to rains in different parts of Kumaon region including Nainital.

While Nainital received the maximum 120mm of rain, Haldwani in the district was a close second with 110mm of rain followed by Dehradun (83.7mm), Roorkee (79mm), Mussoorie (60mm) and Pithoragarh 51.6mm, the MeT office in Dehradun said.

Heavy rain since last night breached the road on way to Kedarnath at three places prompting authorities to halt the yatra for the time being and instruct pilgrims to wait at safe stopovers built along the way to the Himalayan shrine and resume their journey when the weather clears.

The high altitude Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts received smaller quantity of rain with yatra to Badrinath in Chamoli district and Gangotri and Yamunotri in Uttarkashi remaining largely unaffected, Disaster Management officials said. — PTI