- AFP
- 39 Minutes ago
100 missing, four dead as flash flood hits Indian village
DEHRADUN: A flash flood swept through a village in the northern Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, killing at least four people and around 100 others were missing, India Today TV
channel reported on Tuesday.
Teams from army and disaster response forces had reached the area, local authorities said, with workers trying to rescue people trapped under debris and sludge, authorities added.
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Meanwhile, TV news channels and social media showed water, mud and debris surging down a mountain, sweeping away homes and a road.
The mudslide cleaved through Dharali village, burying some houses, according to a video update shared by the state chief minister’s office.
“A massive mudslide struck Dharali village in the KheerGad area near Harsil, triggering a sudden flow of debris and water through the settlement,” the Central Command of the Indian Army said in a post on X.
Several people could be seen running before being engulfed by the dark waves of debris that uprooted entire buildings.
State Disaster Response Force commander Arpan Yaduvanshi said the mud was 50 feet (15 metres) deep in places, swamping some buildings entirely.
“Search and rescue efforts are ongoing, with all available resources being deployed to locate and evacuate any remaining stranded persons,” army spokesman Suneel Bartwal said.
EXTREMELY HEAVY RAINFALL
The India Meteorological Department issued a red alert warning for the area, and recorded “extremely heavy” rainfall of around 21 centimetres (eight inches) in isolated parts of Uttarakhand.
“Luckily, most of the people were at a fair in a safe location,” said a disaster official who asked not to be named since he was not authorised to speak to the media.
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A wide swathe of the town was swamped by deep debris.
In places, the mud lapped at the rooftops of houses.
Uttarakhand is prone to floods and landslides, which some experts blame on climate change.
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At least 200 people died in 2021 when flash floods swept away two hydroelectric projects in
the state.
There are about 10,000 glaciers in the Indian Himalayas, and many are receding due to the warming climate.
DISTRESS CALL
Last year, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a “distress signal” of what is to come as climate change makes the planet’s water cycle ever more unpredictable.
“The devastating loss… must be our final wake-up call”, said climate activist Harjeet Singh, from the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation in New Delhi.
“This tragedy is a deadly cocktail”, he added.
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“Global warming is super-charging our monsoons with extreme rain, while on the ground, our own policies of cutting hills; unscientific, unsustainable, and reckless construction; and choking rivers for so-called ‘development’ are destroying our natural defences.”
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