Rain fury: Himachal Police scouring inaccessible areas to trace stranded tourists

Shimla: With 60,000 tourists being evacuated so far, police teams in Himachal Pradesh are now focusing on inaccessible areas with tough topography and low mobile connectivity to trace stranded persons.

Heavy rains triggered flash floods and landslides in many parts of the state, blocking roads and damaging property.

“Rescue operations are going on and the police teams are now moving to tough and interior areas where roads have been blocked due to floods and landslides to search for stranded people” officiating DGP Satwant Atwal told PTI on Friday.

A number of tourists stuck in Kasol, Manikaran and other adjoining areas have refused to move out without their vehicles and have decided to stay back on their own for a few more days till the situation normalises and all roads are opened, she said.

The tourists said they would prefer to take their vehicles along and would wait till the roads are opened. Some said they would travel when things get better and traffic congestion is over.

Due to a heavy landslide near Dunkhara on the Kasol-Bhuntar road, the vehicles could not be moved and the tourists had to trek to reach the other side.

Following reluctance of tourists to leave without vehicles, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had on Thursday said that the police will provide the tourists with a slip (receipt) and they can take their vehicles when roads are through.

Families of tourists are still contacting the police to know the whereabouts and safety of their near and dear ones and the police are now seeking details of hotels, vehicle numbers, and photographs besides name, number and last location to trace tourists who have not communicated with their family members.

According to the state government over 60,000 tourists have been evacuated so far. Over 790 roads are blocked in the state and 1,468 transformers and 963 water supply schemes are affected as per the state emergency operations centre.

As many as 91 persons have died due to rain-related incidents and road accidents since the onset of monsoon on June 24 till July 13 and bodies of people killed in flash floods are being recovered in Kullu and Mandi districts.

The state is expected to receive heavy rain at isolated places till July 18 with the local MeT office issuing a yellow alert.

Light to moderate rains continued to lash some parts of the state and Kangra received 64 mm of rain, Palampur (33 mm) and Berthin (28.5 mm).