7 dead in Himachal, U’khand as rains fury grips NW India

Heavy to very heavy spell of rain is likely to continue over Northwest India over the next three days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) warned on Monday, even as heavy rains continue to wreak havoc in the Himalayas with seven killed in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the last 24 hours.

- Jayashree Nandi, Shailee Dogra and Navrajdeep Singh

According to IMD’s daily weather bulletin, extremely heavy rainfall is expected to hit Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and western Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is also likely over Konkan, Goa, Madhya Maharashtra, Gujarat and coastal Karnataka during September 3-6, with possibility of extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Gujarat on September 4 and 5, the weather office said.

Red alerts have been issued for multiple districts in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for Tuesday, it added.

The warning came as heavy downpours continued to disrupt life in the Himalayas as incessant rainfall triggered landslides, flash floods and extensive infrastructure damage in the region.

‘According to the Met department, heavy to very heavy rainfall with extremely heavy rainfall (>21 cm) has been recorded at isolated places over Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, western Rajasthan and Telangana over the last 24 hours.

IMD, on Sunday, said that one of the main reasons for the extreme rainfall and flash floods in August was because of the development of five active western disturbances (WD), which then interacted with monsoon circulation and brought very heavy downpour in the northern states especially Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.