5 dead bodies recovered; 52 people still missing in HP

Aug 16: Five dead bodies have been recovered so far in a rescue operation in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh. However, as much as 52 people are still missing in a flash flood and landslides held on Tuesday night, a senior district official said.

Teams of army, Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) along with district police have been carrying the joint rescue operation near the Sutlej river in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh since late Tuesday night. Five dead bodies including four women had been recovered from the flash flood water. All the recovered bodies have been identified, but still 52 people are feared dead as more than 36 hours have been gone and they are still untraced.

“30 out 52 have been recognised in the missing in which 20 of them are women and 10 are schoolchildren”, said Rampur SDM D K Rattan. Rattan is supervising relief and rescue operations in the village. “The landslides and flash floods destroyed 16 homes, apart from a primary health center and a store of the irrigation and public health department”, informed Rattan.

A senior police officer among the rescue operation told that the ten school children were coming to the village to take part in an Independence Day function at a school had washed away in the flash flood, while the cloudburst and landslides destroyed 16 houses, but Ghanavi dam is quite safe.

All the victims were workers and employees of Ghanavi hydroelectric power project on the Sutlej river in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh. All of them have been shifted to the safe place from the Ghanavi village.

"The death toll could be between 50 and 60 persons, but it is possible that some of the villagers have managed to run out before the boulders and rocks brought down their homes”, said Rattan.

Besides human being, twenty cattle and other domestic animals had also been washed away in the floodwater, but soon got recovered by the local villagers. All the dead bodies have been recovered only by non-rescue team.