BY IANS,
Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand): At least 30 people were killed and 50 were missing as three mountain villages in Uttarakhand were washed away Saturday by a landslide triggered by a cloudburst, an official said.
The villages – La, Gherna and Lelu Nehar – in Munsiyari area of Pithoragarh district, about 450 km from state capital Dehradun, were located at a height of 5,000 feet.
Twenty-nine bodies have been recovered so far, state police chief Subhash Joshi said. The hilly region was lashed by a downpour from Friday evening till Saturday afternoon.
Rescue workers from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) searched till the evening for around 50 people still missing. But the operation had to be called off due to darkness in the remote border villages, Joshi said.
The inhospitable terrain also came in the way of the rescue operation, he said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced compensation of Rs.100,000 for the families of each of those killed in the tragedy.
The Munsiyari area borders Tibet and Nepal towards the east.