4-month-old baby among 4 dead in Uttarakhand landslide that buried cars in Tehri
Tehri disaster management officer Brijesh Bhatt said the three people who died in the landslide were from the same family
MUSSOORIE: Four people including an infant died after a landslide at a parking lot in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district on Monday buried several vehicles and blocked the Rishikesh-Tehri-Uttarkashi highway.
Tehri disaster management officer Brijesh Bhatt said three people were in their vehicle when the debris from the landslide buried them. By the time rescue workers reached them, the three were dead. “They have been identified as Poonam Khanduri, 30, resident of village Jaspur Kandisaur, her 4-month-old son Suman Singh, and her sister Saraswati Devi, 32. The bodies have been taken to the district hospital”, he said after the vehicle was pulled out from the debris.
Lalita Negi of the state disaster response force (SDRF) later said a fourth body was also pulled out late in the evening. “The body has been identified as Prakash, 32 years. The body has been handed over to the district police. So far a total of four bodies have been recovered from the debris. SDRF team’s search and rescue work is still going on at the site”.
Tehri Garhwal district magistrate Mayur Dikshit and chief development officer Manish Kumar also reached the landslide spot near the Chamba police station. People living in the houses in the vicinity of the landslide have been advised to move to safer places. Six earth movers have been deployed at the spot to help with the rescue operation by personnel of the state disaster response force, public works department, fire department and police.
Bhatt said the power department is also working to restore power supply to the area.
Upendar Makhloga a resident of Chamba town said they heard a loud rumbling noise and rushed out of their house to see the entire mountainside had come down due to a landslide.
‘We are apprehensive that as the mountain slope has loose rocks, it may crumble again with heavy rains and cause more damage here,” said another resident, Vinod Negi.
