More than 2,000 people evacuated after landslides in Himachal blocked river

Shimla: More than 2,000 people were evacuated from 13 villages in Himachal Pradesh's Lahual-Spiti district on Friday, after a major landslide in trans-Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh blocked the flow of the glacial-fed Chandrabagha river, raising flood fears in downstream villages in Udaipur tehsil,

The landslide led to the formation of a barrier lake that posed a threat to nearby homes and agricultural fields. However, the river made its natural course over the landslide after several hours of the lake formation. The disaster-hit spot is located some 30 km from district headquarters Keylong in Lahaul-Spiti district.

No fatalities or injuries have been reported so far, reports NDTV although 16 people are missing, according to news agency AFP. The evacuations were ordered as a "preventative measure" - in case of flash floods - a senior district official told AFP.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur later tweeted to indicate that sections of the river had resumed its flow, reducing the danger of floods along the riverbank.

"The river was blocked due to the heavy landslide in the morning. Villages were evacuated and a helicopter aerial survey and the NDRF team deployment planned," an IANS report quoted State Disaster Management Director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta saying.

He said after some hours the Chandrabagha water flow has started over the landslide blockade.Moktha further said that things are under control and added that all downstream villages have been evacuated as a preventive measure.

The dramatic pictures and videos of the river being blocked by a huge landslide in Lahaul gone viral on the social media.

The natural calamities are happening so often these days in the hill state.

Just two days back the devastating landslide in Kinnaur district claimed at least 15 lives and the search and rescue operations are still on.

This has been the second major natural disaster in Kinnaur in less than a month. Nine people, most of them tourists, were killed by a landslide as boulders fell and hit the vehicle they were travelling in on July 25.

Since mountains in Himachal Pradesh are part of Himalayan range that are young and fragile in nature, creating cracks and fractures in the rock could widen in future and create a rockfall or slope failure zone -- a phenomenon in which a slope collapses abruptly under the influence of rainfall or an earthquake, Experts was quoted saying in IANS report

According to them anthropological intervention along with climate change have worsened it further. Be it development of hydropower projects or tunnels or roads.

Seven people died in the exceptionally high rainfall across the cold desert of Lahaul-Spiti district on July 27-28. Keylong and Udaipur subdivision of the district faced 12 incidents of flash flood after a cloudburst in which the Tozing Nallah impact was devastating, says a government report.

Both Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur fall in the Himalayan ranges, known for geological and ecological vulnerability.