Heavy rain lashes Uttarakhand: Four Nepalese dead, one washed away in Ganga

Rudraprayag/Dehradun, Aug 23 (PTI) Four labourers from Nepal were killed early Friday in a landslide in Rudraprayag district, while one person was swept away in the Ganga in Haridwar district as heavy overnight rain lashed various parts of Uttarakhand.

Landslides triggered by heavy rain also blocked the national highways to Badrinath, Kedarnath and Yamunotri. Water and slush from a flooded Pathri Rau river entered about 70 homes on Thursday night in Hari Akshay Nagar Phase 1 near Roorkee and broke the colony's boundary wall, the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) here said.

The waters of the river also damaged the crops, it said.

More than half a dozen houses were also damaged by heavy rain on Friday in Genvli village in Banganga area of Tehri district, the SEOC said. Four labourers from Nepal died in a landslide caused by heavy rain near the helipad in Phata village on way to Kedarnath.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has recovered their bodies from under the debris of the landslide, Rudraprayag Disaster Management Oficer Nanan Sigh Rajwar said. The landslide occurred at around 1.20 am, he said. They deceased were identified as Tul Bahadur, Purna Nepali, Kishna Paridhar and Deepak Bura, all residents of Nepal, Rajwar said.

A man identified as Rahul was swept away in the Ganga while bathing in the river in Kangdi area of Laksar. A search is being conducted by the SDRF and Jal Police in the area for the man who was a resident of Sherpur Bela village in Haridwar district, it said.

Heavy rain lashed various parts of Uttarakhand on Thursday night causing landslides which left the national highways to Kedarnath, Badrinath and Yamuotri blocked.

The Kedarnath national highway is blocked by landslide debris in Shersi and Byungad and the NH to Badrinath in Nandprayag, Hanumanchatti and Kanchanganga, the SEOC said.

The national highway to Yamunotri was also closed for heavy traffic with a portion of it getting washed out in Banas following heavy rain, it said.

Heavy overnight rain has also left several areas of Dehradun heavily waterlogged, including Kochar Colony, Maldevta and Majrimafi. PTI