Cloudbursts taken lives of 17 in HP, J&K, Ladakh

A series of flash floods in Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh killed at least 17 people on Wednesday and damaged several residential houses, standing crops and a mini power plant, officials said. In Kishtwar, a cloudburst hit a remote village around 4:30 am, leaving seven people dead and 17 others injured, while at least nine people are dead, two injured and seven reported missing in the flash floods in the hilly state, they said.

In Ladakh, two cloudbursts hit different areas of Kargil, causing damage to a mini power project, nearly a dozen residential houses and standing crops, the officials said, adding that no loss of life was reported in the cloudbursts, which struck Sangra and Khangral on Tuesday evening. Many roads in various other parts of the state have been blocked due to landslides. In Udaipur in Lahaul, two tents of labourers and a private JCB were washed away in the flash floods triggered by a cloudburst around 8 pm on Tuesday. Seven people died in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul-Spiti flash floods in Tozing Nullah in Udaipur, two injured and three are still missing, while two men died in Chamba. Besides four people, including a woman, her son, a hydro project official and a Delhi tourist are feared dead in Kullu district. In Kishtwar, 19 houses, 21 cow sheds and a ration depot situated on the banks of a stream, besides a bridge were damaged in the cloudburst. A search and rescue operation by police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) is underway to locate over 14 people who are still missing from the scene of the cloudburst at village Honzar in Dacchan tehsil.