Heavy rains kill 63 people in northern India
Heavy monsoon rains over a course of two weeks have claimed the lives of at least 63 people in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, local authorities said on Thursday.
The torrential rains have led to floods, damaged roads, and the cutting off of many villages in the Himalayan state, according to local media reports. Over 150 houses, 106 cattle sheds, 31 vehicles, and 14 bridges have been affected by the adverse weather, which also claimed the lives of 164 cows.
"Our focus now is on search, rescue, and restoration," D C Rana, head of the local disaster management authority, told the media.
Himachal Pradesh's State Disaster Response Force personnel carried a pregnant woman in a palanquin for several miles to admit her in a hospital on Wednesday, according to a report by NDTV. Other reports shared stories of entire villages being swept away in the state.
A few states in the Indian plains have also been affected by severe rainfall. Adequate numbers of National Disaster Response Force teams have been deployed for relief efforts in affected states, Indian Home MinisterAmit Shahwrote in a post on X. He added that reinforcements would also be sent.
The India Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rainfall in northwestern and central India over the next week, with peak intensity expected in the northwest July 6-7. Eastern India is also likely to witness significant rainfall until July 7, the department said. In June, heavy floods in the Himalayan region of India caused at least 36 deaths and affected more than 500,000 people.
(RT.com)
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
What Dharali & Chasoti disasters have in common
Chasoti/Dehradun: Within nine days, two Himalayan villages separated by hundreds of kilometres but bound by similar economies and geographies were torn apart by sudden floods. Dharali in Uttarkashi was hit on Aug 5, and Chasoti in J&K's Kishtwar followed on Aug 14. Both live off pilgrim traffic and the rhythms of apple and walnut orchards. Both saw their temples, bridges and farmland vanish in minutes. Both were said to have been hit by cloudbursts, a familiar shorthand in the mountains. Yet meteorological records tell a different story -- the rain that fell in those hours was too little, too scattered, to have unleashed such destruction. And in neither village was there any weather monitoring system that might have clarified the sequence of events. The contradiction has led scientists to suggest another possibility -- that these were glacial lake outburst floods, or GLOFs, disasters triggered when melting glaciers or fragile moraine dams gave way. The question matters. If rainfall was not the culprit, then the risks faced by mountain communities are even more unpredictable than assumed. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Is it better to shower in the morning or at night? Here's what a microbiologist says CNA Read More Undo At noon on Aug 14 in Chasoti, Suresh Chander, 49, was at his dhaba near the stream when the sound came. "On the night of Aug 13, there was no heavy rain. Even the next day, only a thin drizzle, the kind that barely makes you wet. I was at my dhaba when the water came down and we just ran," he said. "My family survived, but my uncle Dina Nath, 75, a priest at one of the three temples, was taken. Three temples were gone in minutes. I grow apples, but what kept us going was the yatra season. " IMD gauges near Dharali logged only low totals on Aug 5, even as floods struck and left one killed and at least 68 feared dead, forcing a halt in the Gangotri yatra. In Chasoti, the district recorded almost no rain on Aug 14, with duty officers reporting only intermittent drizzle at best. Yet torrents of water, rocks and mud swept down the valleys, destroying homes and orchards. The official toll here reached 70 on Thursday, with an equal number missing. CM Omar Abdullah has said it is "nearly impossible" they would be found alive. Mukhtar Ahmed, director of the meteorological centre in Srinagar, told TOI that satellite and radar data confirmed rainfall activity over Chasoti and indicated the catchment's linkage with Ladakh's Zanskar valley, which houses several glaciers. However, he admitted that the recorded rainfall alone was too low to account for the scale of flooding. "The nearest weather station at Gulabgarh — just 2–3 km aerially from the site—recorded only 4–5 mm of light rain on Aug 14. Such limited rainfall cannot generate a flash flood of this magnitude. It suggests something occurred in the upper catchment, possibly intense localised rainfall in several adjoining valleys, which then funneled down through a single narrow catchment valley," Ahmed added. He also drew more parallels between Chasoti and the recent Dharali disaster. "Both areas have glaciers in their upper catchments, and in both cases, the flash floods carried down unusually large boulders of extraordinary size," he added. Chasoti lies in Paddar valley, which borders Zanskar to the north and east. From the village, it takes a multi-day, high-altitude trek across Umasi La, at 5,300 metres, to reach Padum, the main town of Zanskar. Anand Sharma, president of the Indian Meteorological Society and former additional director general of IMD, echoed similar concerns, noting that the available rainfall data does not support the cloudburst theory. Instead, he stressed the need for improved data collection from upper catchment zones to better understand what triggered incidents like Chasoti and Dharali. "Rain-bearing clouds are typically large-scale systems. To attribute such devastation to a tiny, hyper-localised cloudburst does not align with meteorological science," Sharma said. He added that rainfall must be examined across entire catchments, alongside closer monitoring of glaciers and unstable slopes, to accurately assess such disasters. The official reliance on "cloudburst" as a blanket explanation, researchers warn, risks obscuring the complexity of Himalayan disasters. Doppler radars may track extreme rainfall, but they cannot anticipate a glacial dam breach or a slope collapse. India's National Disaster Management Authority has already identified dozens of potentially dangerous glacial lakes in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and J&K. Monitoring remains limited, and warnings rarely reach communities living directly in harm's way. Amid these debates, infrastructure projects in both areas are inching forward. The govt has proposed a strategic Paddar–Zanskar road to link Jammu with Ladakh. Plans include a 45 km road via Chasoti–Machail–Soomchan–Zongkhulm. A 31- km stretch from Paddar to Lossani Machail has already been sanctioned under PMGSY, along with a proposed 8-km tunnel through the mountains to Dangail. For survivors in both Dharali and Chasoti, though, scientific debates and infrastructure promises feel distant, even as they struggle to come to terms with the recent tragedy, and brace themselves for the future, in case another one strikes. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area.
News18
4 hours ago
- News18
Punjab minister visits villages affected by rising water level in Ferozepur
Last Updated: Ferozepur/Hoshiarpur/Kapurthala, Aug 21 (PTI) Punjab Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal on Thursday reviewed the relief work in villages affected by rising water level in the rivers in Ferozepur and said the state government will fully compensate the people for crop damage and other losses. Goyal visited the affected areas in Tendi Wala, Ghazni Wala and Dhira Ghara in Ferozepur. Eight cabinet ministers have been assigned to supervise relief work in the flood-affected areas. He said the most important priority of the Punjab government is to take the people in the flood-affected areas to safer places, as well as providing them health care, ration and fodder to livestock. During his visit, the minister also interacted with affected families, heard their problems and ordered officials to provide all possible assistance to them. He said the Punjab government is monitoring the situation round-the-clock. Goyal said the Punjab government has spent Rs 276 crore on flood prevention works. Many parts of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have been receiving heavy rains in the past few weeks, leading to heavy flow of water in the Beas and Sutlej rivers. The worst-affected areas are Tanda in Hoshiarpur district, Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district and some villages in Ferozepur, Fazilka and Tarn Taran districts. Meanwhile, Punjab Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management Minister Hardeep Singh Mundian visited the flood-affected villages of Baupur Jadeed and Sangra in Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district, where he met with affected families. He said the state government has issued orders for special 'girdawari' (loss assessment) to compensate for crop damage and other losses caused by rising water levels in rivers. He informed that the deputy commissioners have been instructed to complete the special 'girdawari' as soon as water levels recede and submit their reports promptly, so that appropriate compensation can be provided to affected people. The minister also disclosed that relief operations in the flood-affected districts of Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka are being monitored by a ministerial committee. The cabinet ministers are visiting various districts to share the grief of affected people while continuously overseeing relief operations. He further said a sum of Rs 2 crore has been released for relief operations in Kapurthala district to ensure that distribution of rations, drinking water, medicines and livestock healthcare services continues for affected people. Mundian said under flood prevention measures, a special campaign will be launched across Punjab to further strengthen 'Dhussi' and advance bundhs'�earthen embankments. He reached affected people by a boat and listened to their difficulties. He also asked to deploy additional State Disaster Response Force) teams to ensure relief operations face no obstacles. Mundian distributed dry rations, medicines and drinking water to affected people. The minister instructed district administrative officers to ensure continuous fogging in affected areas. Besides this, health department teams should conduct regular health checkups while raising awareness among people about skin diseases and water-borne disease prevention. Stressing special attention to livestock healthcare, Mundian ordered veterinary doctors to visit affected villages and habitats to examine livestock. In Kapurthala, flood-affected people on Thursday heaved a sigh of relief as flood water in the swollen Beas river receded by two feet in the worst affected village Baupur and other adjoining villages, according to an official of the drainage department. The official said the water level in the river is varying from 1.16 lakh to 1.19 lakh cusecs. According to official sources, about 69,800 cusecs of water was discharged into the Beas through spillway gates and powerhouse tunnels at the Shah Nehar barrage. The inflow also stood at 69,800 cusecs, while the reservoir level touched 1,384.45 feet, close to the danger mark of 1,390 feet. Around 1.15 lakh cusecs of water was flowing in the river, they added. Sukhpreet Singh, subdivisional officer (drainage and mining), Mukerian in Hoshiarpur district, said MGNREGA workers had been deployed to strengthen the embankment at Kanwali village, which lies right on the riverbank. The workers are plugging rat holes and soil erosion points with earth to prevent breaches, he said. Rara village sarpanch Charanjit Singh Sandhu said water had entered low-lying portions of farmland in the area. He demanded adequate compensation for crop loss, saying that the Rs 7,200 per acre relief given by the government after the 2023 floods was too little compared to actual expenses. 'Just harvesting paddy costs about Rs 5,000 per acre, while the total cost of cultivation comes close to Rs 20,000. The government should announce realistic compensation this time," he said, adding that his own 28-acre of areas was under floodwater and that about 500 acres of the village's 4,400-acre land was affected. Tanda Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Parampreet Singh said five villages had been put on alert and Abdullapur had already been evacuated. He said all affected families are being provided necessary assistance. PTI COR CHS SKY SKY (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: August 21, 2025, 20:00 IST News agency-feeds Punjab minister visits villages affected by rising water level in Ferozepur Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Loading comments...
Scroll.in
4 hours ago
- Scroll.in
Uttarakhand: Dharali had a history of floods, but construction expanded. Now, more threats loom
It was around 1.30 pm on August 5, when after consistent rains, the residents of Dharali, a picturesque village in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district, began fearing the worst: a disastrous flash flood. Mohammad Shoaib, a 21-year-old welder from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, was in Dharali's market area, waiting to pick up three of his co-workers in a car, when suddenly he heard people from the nearby Mukhba village and from Dharali, settled a little higher up and away from the market, screaming, shouting and whistling. They were warning everyone below to run for their lives as they saw a flash flood approaching Dharali. With his co-workers nowhere in sight, Shoaib, who, amidst the screams and whistles, could also hear the loud rumbles and thuds of the incoming flash flood, started the car and sped through Dharali at about 70km-80 km per hour. When he stopped and looked back, the entire market area behind him had either been swept away in the flash flood or buried under the huge amounts of sediment and boulders that Kheer Gad, or Kheer Ganga – a Himalayan stream passing through Dharali – brought down with it. He had escaped the flood by barely a second or two. Despite several days of post-disaster rescue efforts by the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, the Indian Army, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, and Uttarkashi district administration teams, only one body had been recovered as of August 13. According to the Dehradun-based State Emergency Operation Centre, at least 68 people remain missing from Dharali and Harsil, a settlement about three kilometres away from Dharali, where an army camp was damaged in another flood-related disaster that also struck on August 5, leaving nine army personnel missing. The 40-60 feet of sediment and boulders deposited by the flash flood in Dharali's market areas have made it almost impossible to locate and recover bodies. The people missing comprise Dharali residents, tourists, and labourers, mostly from Nepal, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, of whom the majority, 25, are Nepali labourers. The primary cause of the flash flood is still unknown. However, experts speculate that it could have been a rock and ice avalanche, followed by temporary damming that was later breached, which may have caused the flood. Alternatively, a possible landslide lake outburst flood, or LLOF, may have occurred. The Uttarakhand government initially claimed that the flood was caused by a cloudburst, but experts are yet to confirm this. Increased construction, despite history of floods When Sanjay Saini, a mountaineer, first set foot in Dharali in 1996, he saw just four buildings in the market area that now lies buried under heaps of sediment, boulders, and rubble. Construction of houses, lodges, shops, and hotels in the same area gathered pace only in the past two decades, driven by rising tourist numbers in the area and pilgrim footfall to the Gangotri shrine, about 20 kilometres from Dharali. Resorts followed, and a few years ago, homestays also began to appear. 'Traditionally, houses in this region were built on stable slopes, away from rivers. It was well understood that streams in the Himalaya are not always gentle. They are powerful and have carved out valleys over millennia,' said Piyoosh Rautela, a geologist and former executive director at the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority. In recent times however, settlements have come up in economically viable yet unstable areas, mostly along roads and rivers. In June 2013, when several rivers in Uttarakhand were in spate, the Kheer Gad also flooded. At the time, large amounts of sediment and rocks brought by the stream were deposited in the Dharali market area. A few hotels near the stream were damaged, many buildings were filled with five to 10 feet of sediment, and several cars were buried under the sediment. 'Extensive flood protection works were carried out along the Kheer Gad after the 2013 flood, so we thought our worries about future floods had been resolved,' said 36-year-old Dharali resident Bhimraj Panwar, whose ancestral house was completely damaged in the August 5 disaster. Post-2013, when reinforced cement concrete walls were built on the sides of the stream to protect the village from future floods, more buildings were constructed in the Dharali market area, Panwar said. Dharali residents recalled that they witnessed a flood in 2018 too. Historically, too, the village has witnessed flooding. Kalp Kedar, a temple in the village, located in the disaster-hit area, now lies completely buried under material brought down by the flood. In the past too, it was likely buried under debris from a flooded Kheer Gad and was partly excavated around the 1980s, said a senior geologist, Navin Juyal. 'This shows that the area has been experiencing the deposition of sediments from floods for a long time,' Juyal said. Constructing on Kheer Gad's path On August 7, two days after the disaster, the Indian Space Research Organisation's National Remote Sensing Centre released images sourced through Cartosat-2S satellites. These images show the village before the disaster on June 13, 2024, and after the disaster on August 7, 2025. The images reveal the extent of damage in the Dharali market area following the flash flood. The images show that the market was established on a land shaped like a fan–scientifically called a debris-flow fan – formed over the years by sediments deposited during high, medium, and low flows in the Kheer Gad. 'Establishing a settlement on land where the river continually deposits sediments is precarious, as it carries the risk of a Dharali-like disaster,' said Wolfgang Schwanghart, a geomorphologist at the University of Potsdam, Germany, who has been studying natural hazards and disasters in Himalayan areas, including Uttarakhand, for over a decade. Schwanghart noted that even though suitable land for settlement is scarce in the difficult terrain of Uttarakhand Himalayas, debris-flow fans should be strictly avoided for construction and habitation, and should be left undisturbed. Manish Kumar, an ecohydrologist and climate adaptation professional who has worked on Himalayan hydrology, including in Uttarakhand, for nearly two decades, described debris-flow fans as 'safety valves' of streams like the Kheer Gad, which flow through steep slopes before entering flatter areas. Kumar explained, 'Constructing over these fans is like choking the stream's safety valves. The stream is bound to break out and reclaim its area sooner or later, which is what happened in Dharali.' The disaster, Kumar said, was a warning against unrestricted development in sensitive and complex Himalayan areas. On August 11, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami instructed officials to identify disaster-prone areas in the state and ensure that no new constructions are built there. He also gave instructions to ban construction near water bodies, such as rivers and streams. In 2013, too, when floods struck several parts of Uttarakhand and at least 4,000 people died in the Kedarnath Valley alone, the then Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna banned construction along river banks. However, in reality, several buildings, especially hotels, beside rivers that were swept away in the floods were rebuilt, some on the very same spots where they had earlier stood. After 2013, environmental norms continued to be violated for the construction of several large infrastructure projects such as hydropower and national highways. Responding to Dhami's decision to ban future construction in hazard-prone areas, Ravi Chopra, a Dehradun-based environmental scientist and development activist, said, 'This is simply an executive order to officials and does not carry legal weight. In fact, it has a major lacuna – it addresses future construction activities. What about existing settlements like Dharali? How is the government planning to ensure the safety of those already living in hazard-prone areas?' Following the 2013 disaster, orders, including those by the Uttarakhand High Court and the National Green Tribunal, were issued to prevent building near rivers. However, these orders were also violated. 'What we need is a committed officialdom that will ensure measures are taken to mitigate disasters. That commitment is usually missing,' said Chopra, who, after the 2013 Uttarakhand disaster, headed two Supreme Court-appointed committees to review the impacts of hydropower projects, and a mega national highway widening project in Uttarakhand – the Char Dham Pariyojana. Slope stability A looming threat to Dharali and nearby villages is the proposed felling of about 6,000 deodar, or Himalayan cedar, trees to widen national highway-34, the road to the Gangotri shrine. These trees stand along a 10-kilometre stretch between Jhala and Jangla in Uttarkashi district, which includes Dharali and Harsil. Meanwhile, the Border Roads Organisation has been pushing to widen the national highway at the cost of felling these trees and weakening slope stability. Experts warn that cutting these trees will destabilise slopes, increasing the risk of landslides. This Jhala-Jangla stretch is part of the Char Dham Pariyojana, a Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' project aimed at widening 889 kilometres of national highways in Uttarakhand. The project has faced criticism for reasons including the ministry's decision to divide the 889 kilometres in 53 smaller sections to avoid environmental impact assessment (EIA). In 2023, the ministry asked geologist Juyal, environmentalist Hemant Dhyani, and hydrogeologist Rajneesh Khilnani to review the Detailed Project Report for a particular stretch of the Char Dham project – 100 kilometres of NH-34 between Gangotri and Uttarkashi. The report had proposed expansion of the road to a 10-metre-wide tarred surface (called double lane with paved shoulder, or DL-PS configuration). The experts were tasked with suggesting disaster-resilient alternatives that minimise slope disturbance during road widening. Their recommendations included constructing reinforced concrete cement walls on the side of the road facing away from the slope, and filling them with locally available sediments. This approach would help save the trees from being felled and keep the slopes undisturbed. The Jhala-Jangla segment, which lies within the stretch that the experts reviewed, is particularly sensitive. The 6,000 trees marked for felling on this segment stand on slopes strewn with rocks and boulders, which are debris from past avalanches. 'Trees have the essential function of gripping these slopes with their roots, thereby keeping these slopes stable,' Juyal said. Flood protection work done in Dharali after the 2013 disaster. Image by special arrangement. Dhyani said, 'Streams here, like the Kheer Gad, are already prone to flash floods, which have damaged NH-34 in the past, too. Cutting thousands of deodar trees adds further risk of the highway being frequently damaged by future landslides.' Parts of national highway-34 were also damaged during the August 5 disaster, delaying rescue efforts. Also, the 10-kilometre stretch between Jhala and Jangla, falls within the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone, which was notified in 2012, where construction work in hazard zones, on steep slopes, and on slopes with high erosion is prohibited. In 2019, the Supreme Court gave directions to form a high-powered committee to review the Char Dham project. For works in the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone, the high-powered committee recommended avoiding deodar felling, conducting detailed environmental impact assessment, and securing necessary clearances from the environment ministry. Dhyani, who is also a member of the high-powered committee, said that the Border Roads Organisation did not follow the panel's recommendations. The Border Roads Organisation's push for cutting the 6,000 deodar trees is also in violation of a Supreme Court judgement of December 14, 2021, regarding the Char Dham project, which gives directions to avoid felling of deodar trees. A civil society group from Uttarkashi, 'Himalayi Nagrik Drishti Manch', alleges that to bypass environmental clearance, the Border Roads Organisation concealed from the environment ministry that the Jhala-Jangla stretch lies within Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone. On August 19, 2024, the Border Roads Organisation wrote to the Uttarakhand forest department claiming that environmental impact assessment and environmental clearance might not be necessary. Mongabay India emailed the Border Roads Organisation for their response regarding the alleged violations and received no response at the time of publishing. In view of the August 5 disaster in Dharali and the need to maintain slope stability in and around the village, Juyal and Dhyani submitted a note to the transport ministry on August 12, urging it to consider an alternative approach to widening the Jhala-Jangla stretch to save the 6,000 deodar trees from being felled.
