At least 41 killed in Indian Himalayas as rain triggers landslides

NEW DELHI - Torrential rain in India’s Himalayas triggered landslides at the weekend that have killed at least 41 people, with dozens trapped or missing, officials said on Monday.

Unusually heavy rain and melting glaciers have brought

deadly flash floods to the mountains of India

and neighbouring Pakistan and Nepal over the past year or two, with government officials increasingly blaming climate change.

Television footage from India’s Himachal Pradesh state showed houses flattened by landslides, buses and cars hanging on the edge of precipices after roads gave way, and hundreds of people at rescue sites as emergency workers struggled to clear debris.

“Again, tragedy has befallen Himachal Pradesh, with continuous rainfall over the past 48 hours,” the state’s Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh said in a post on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Reports of cloudbursts and landslides have emerged from various parts of the state, resulting in loss of precious lives and property.”

At least 41 people have died in rain-related incidents since Sunday and 13 were still missing, according to a report by the state disaster management department, seen by Reuters.

In one of the most deadly incidents, a temple collapsed in the state capital Shimla, with rescuers pulling out at least nine bodies. Schools and other educational institutes have been ordered to close and people in danger were moved to shelters, officials said.

Parts of the state received as much as 273mm of rain in 24 hours, said the India Meteorological Department.

State disaster management official Praveen Bhardwaj said: “This is the first time we’re seeing multiple cloudburst incidents and widespread damage in the state.”

In Solan district, houses collapsed following a cloudburst, killing at least seven people. A mother and her child were also killed in Mandi district when their house collapsed, he said. REUTERS