156 deaths due to drowning in 13 months

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 25

With 156 deaths due to drowning in Himachal in the past 13 months, The DGP Sanjay Kundu has cautioned the general public against going close to water bodies.

In a tweet, Kundu said “Himachal is blessed with natural beauty, which attracts people to rivers, rivulets, lakes and ponds but do not venture too close to water bodies, especially in monsoons.”

“Be mindful that 156 persons have lost their lives in 160 incidents of drowning in the 13 months period from January 1, 2020 till January 31, 2021”, the tweet said. The number of drowning deaths increases during the monsoon (May end to August) due to cloud burst, flash floods, excessive rains leading to landslides and accidents at river basins due to increasing level of rivers and poor visibility, it said.

The maximum drowning cases were reported from Mandi and Kangra (25 each) followed by Una (17), Kullu (16), Chamba (14), Shimla (13), Sirmaur (12), Bilaspur (11), Solan and Baddi (10), Hamirpur and Kinnaur (5 each) and Lahaul and Spiti (3).

As per the data available from 17 stations where river water level is measured, most of the water bodies are in spate and discharge of water was close to the maximum level but rising trend is witnessed only in two stations, namely Pandoh and Sangla while the water level is falling at eight centres.

Meanwhile, two persons have died in rain related incidents in the state in the past 24 hours yesterday.