U'khand: MHA team visits Arakot to assess damage in cloudburst

A team from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) visited cloudburst-hit Mori Tehsil of Uttarkashi to take stock of the damages incurred due to the calamity.

The team consisting of officials from the Disaster Management, Finance, Jal Shakti ministry among others will later submit a report to the MHA on the damage in the area.

District Collector Ashish Chouhan apprised the team about the extent of damage caused in the area. He said that a total of 270 hectares of farmland and 128 hectares of gardens have been destroyed leading to a loss of approximately Rs 9.8 crores.

He added that damages to hospital and health centres in the region have been to the tune of Rs 1.9 crore while 29 water purification and process units too have been damaged leading to a loss of Rs 2.13 crores.

Chouhan also apprised the visiting MHA team about the toll on electricity transmission lines, roads and livestock caused due to the cloudburst in the region.

He added that a total of 16 people had lost their lives while 27 others were injured due to the calamity and that a total of 1454 people were provided relief material by the administration.

Search and rescue operations in various parts of cloudburst hit Balawat village and other parts of the Uttarkashi district have been continuing since after the natural calamity hit the region on August 18.

Incidents of various cloudbursts in parts of Uttarakhand had prompted the state government to dispatch teams of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to undertake rescue and evacuation operations in the region.