Uttarakhand: Two dead, seven missing after cloudburst triggers landslide in Uttarkashi

Two labourers were killed and seven remain missing after a cloudburst triggered a landslide at an under-construction hotel site in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on Sunday morning, PTI reported.

The cloudburst had prompted authorities to suspend the Char Dham Yatra for 24 hours. The order was lifted on Monday. However, officials have been instructed to stop vehicular traffic depending on the weather conditions in their respective districts, Hindustan Times reported.

The landslide occurred around 2.12 am on Sunday near the Silai Band area on the Yamunotri National Highway, according to The Indian Express. The highway is a critical route to the Yamunotri temple, one of the four pilgrimage sites of the Char Dham Yatra.

The labourers’ campsite hit by the landslide housed 29 road construction workers. Their tents were swept away with a sudden surge of rainwater and debris, PTI reported. Twenty workers were rescued, while two bodies were recovered approximately 18 km downstream along the Yamuna riverbanks near Tiladi Shaheed Smaraka.

Those who died were identified as 43-year-old Kewal Bisht from Nepal and 55-year-old Duje Lal from Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district. Of the seven missing persons, four are from Nepal and three from Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district.

According to Uttarkashi Magistrate Prashant Arya, the landslide originated from a newly formed zone near the campsite, an area previously considered safe. “While the rubble was...

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