Amid heavy rains, Char Dham Yatra suspended in Uttarakhand, Red alert issued

Dehradun: The Char Dham Yatra has been suspended in Uttarakhand on August 14 and 15 in view of the red alert issued in the state by the weather office. Heavy rain battered Uttarakhand, inundating major rivers and their streams, and blocking national highways leading to the holy shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, and Gangotri.

The rivers Ganga, Mandakini and Alaknanda are flowing above the danger mark in Rudraprayag, Devprayag and Shrinagar while landslides triggered by heavy rain have blocked several roads, including national highways. A landslide near Kunjapuri Bagardhar in Tehri blocked the Rishikesh-Chamba National Highway, while the movement of heavy vehicles has been stopped at Sakhnidhar on the Rishikesh-Devprayag-Srinagar National Highways. Around 1,169 houses and a large amount of agricultural land have also been damaged.

The meteorological department has issued a red alert for heavy rains in six districts, including Dehradun and Nainital. The hill state has been severely affected by the continuous monsoon rain, which has caused at least 60 deaths and 17 people are missing. The heavy rain over the past couple of days is the result of a fresh spell of Western Disturbance, the weather office has said. ‘The location of the Monsoon trough lies along the foothills of Himalayas and hence the South-westerly Arabian Sea monsoonal winds are hitting the Himalayan foothills’, the IMD said in a statement.