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Death toll in Mandi cloudburst mounts to 14; search on for 31 missing

Shimla, Jul 3 (PTI) With the recovery of one more body, the death toll in the cloudburst and flash flood-related incidents in Mandi has mounted to 14, officials said on Thursday. Five people were injured, while a search is underway for 31 missing, they said. The latest body, yet to be identified, was found in Rode in the Thunag subdivision of the district. Ten cloudbursts, three flash floods and a landslide were witnessed in different parts of Mandi on Tuesday. Earlier in the morning, two people were found dead. In all, seven bodies were found in Gohar, six in Thunag and one in Karsog subdivision of the district. More than 150 houses, 106 cattle sheds, 31 vehicles, 14 bridges and several roads were damaged in the calamities. A total of 164 cattle perished, while 402 people, 348 of them in Mandi, were rescued, and five relief camps have been set up, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said. The inclement weather has sent 246 roads, 145 in Mandi district, out of bounds for traffic, and disrupted 404 transformers and 784 water supply schemes in the past few days in the state, the SEOC said. The Manali-Keylong road was blocked following floods in a drain near the Solang Nallah. The traffic in the area has been diverted to Rohtang Pass. A massive landslide was reported in Dhalli in the suburbs of Shimla, where a chunk of hill came down sliding. No casualty was reported. According to reports, about half a dozen houses were left in a precarious state after a four-lane road embankment on the Kaithlighat-Dhalli stretch collapsed in Lindidhar village, damaging a large number of apple trees. The safety wall had collapsed earlier also, but no steps were taken to bolster it, locals alleged, and blamed the National Highway Authority of India for the incident. Many families in Lindidhar village have been forced to leave their homes and take shelter elsewhere. The place is near Bhatta Kuffar where a five-story building collapsed Monday morning. Heavy rain claimed the lives of about 10,000 chickens in a poultry farm in Majra Mansoh village under Gram Panchayat Dhamandhari in Una district early Thursday. Ranveer Singh, who owned the chicken farm, said his field was inundated with water, leaving him with no time for any rescue attempt. Villagers said waterlogging in the Majra Mansoh area has been a perennial problem in the area. "The government is alive to the problems being faced by the people and is making every effort to provide relief to the disaster victims in the worst-affected areas of Mandi," Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said in a statement. The Public Works Department has pressed into service 84 excavators, one robot, three dozers and 36 tippers to clear the debris, Sukhu said. Due to road closures and poor network connectivity, field coordination remains a challenge, and Intra Circle Roaming (ICR) has been activated by the Department of Telecommunications DoT in the Thunag area. Apart from this, ISATs have also been mobilised to the area for emergency communication, he said. The Jal Shakti department has activated gravity-based small schemes after chlorination to ensure a safe drinking water supply in some villages. Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and police and home guards are engaged in search and rescue operations in Mandi. A total of 246 kits of ration have been air dropped in Thunag and Janjheli, Sukhu said. Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Mandi, Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Jairam Thakur said that his constituency, Seraj, has been the worst-hit, with 500 houses suffering damage. He alleged that he had been trying to contact the CM since morning, but there was no response. Moderate to heavy rain, meanwhile, continued to lash parts of Himachal Pradesh. Pachhad in Sirmaur district received 133.3 mm of rain since Wednesday evening, the highest, followed by Mehra Barsar 92 mm, Jubbarhatti 59.4 mm, Una 58.6 mm, Jatton Barrage 56.6 mm, Baijnath 55 mm, Shimla 45.9 mm, Nahan 42.5 mm, Brahmani 42.2 mm, Kangra 37.6 mm, Baggi 37.5 mm, Murari Devi 34.6 mm, and Palampur 32 mm. The weather office has issued an Orange Alert, warning of heavy to very heavy rains in three to seven districts from July 5 to 7, and a Yellow Alert, warning of heavy rain, across the state, barring the tribal Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts till the weekend. It also warned of low to moderate flash-flood risk in parts of Kangra, Mandi, Hamirpur, Shimla and Sirmaur in the next 24 hours. Sarahan in Shimla district was coldest at night with a low of 14.7 degrees Celsius, while Hamirpur was hottest during the day, recording a high of 33.9 degrees Celsius.

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