On Thursday, the 30th of June, several cloudbursts caused heavy rainfalls – recorded over 100mm within two hours – which subsequently lead to flooding and landslides in Uttarakhand which were responsible for killing at least 30 people in Pithoragarh and Chamoli districts. Several people are missing and feared to have been washed away in a crisis that brought back memories of the deadly floods in 2013 which claimed nearly 6,000 lives. According to officials from the District Disaster Mitigation and Management Center, in Pithoragarh, eight people were killed due to landslides while in Chamoli, there are five people have died. The incessant rains have halted movement on the Thal-Munsyari road and the Rishikesh-Badrinath National Highway while in Chamoli, the Alaknanda river has surpassed its danger mark. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow code warning for next few days, indicating an alert for the same. It has forecasted that heavy to very heavy rainfall is very likely in isolated places. As per the Meteorological department’s benchmarks, this means that there will be rainfall in the range of 60mm-120mm. The alert has been issued for the districts of Nainital, Udhamsingh Nagar, Champawat, Almora, Dehdraun, Uttarkashi, Pauri, Haridwar and Tehri for the next 72 hours. So far, 10 dead bodies have been recovered, while about 17 people are still buried under the debris. In four villages of Chamoli district, six people were killed, while three others are missing.

Alerts_15_2016_India_Flooding and Landslides