Himachal Pradesh braces for heavy rainfall over the next 5 days

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast heavy rains in eight districts of Himachal Pradesh for the next three days (July 18 to July 20) with a possibility that it may extend up to July 22.

The met department issued an orange alert (heavy to very heavy rains) for Kangra, Mandi, Chamba, Bilaspur, Solan, Sirmaur, Kullu and Shimla. And a yellow alert has been issued for Una district.

Yellow indicates least rainfall with no possibilities of flooding while orange signifies strong possibility of heavy impact.

Tourists, who have been heading for hill stations in Himachal despite repeated warnings from the government, have been asked to put their travel plans on hold, at least for the next one week.

At least nine people are confirmed dead (many more are missing) due to flash floods in Kangra district last week. Dharamshala, a popular tourist destination experienced flash floods due to cloud burst. Several videos were circulated online of vehicles being washed away due to strong water currents.

Also read: ‘For Dharamsala’s sake, people need to take a U-turn to nature’

Several areas of Himachal Pradesh have experienced extremely heavy rains and consequent flooding over the past few days. However, the situation has improved in the last few days with light to moderate rains in most parts of the state. Sarkaghat received 86 mm rain, followed by Nadaun (52mm), Jogindernagar (49 mm) Baijnath (29 mm), Sujanpur Tira (27 mm), Kasol (19mm), Hamirpur (16 mm), Bhoranj (14 mm) and Rampur (13 mm), the weather department said.

The IMD has also forecast heavy rains in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Delhi. Moderate to severe thunderstorms with lightning are expected in some areas of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan on Saturday (July 17), PTI reported.