Uttarakhand: 14 missing, 20 injured after landslides, flooding hit Chamoli villages

At least 14 people were feared trapped and 20 injured on Thursday, 18 September, as heavy rains triggered landslides and floods, destroying over 30 houses across four villages in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district.

The affected villages — Kuntari Lagaphali, Kuntari Lagasarpani, Sera, and Dhurma — fall under the Nandanagar area, roughly 260 km from Dehradun and 50 km from Chamoli district headquarters in Gopeshwar. Nandanagar has already been grappling with land subsidence.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, after reviewing the situation, confirmed the extent of the damage and urged authorities to intensify rescue operations in the disaster-hit region.

According to the district disaster management centre, the landslide occurred in Kuntri ward of Nagar Panchayat Nandanagar, where huge debris rolled down the slopes, burying multiple homes. Around half a dozen houses were reduced to rubble in the incident.

Officials said seven people were inside the affected houses at the time. While two of them were pulled out alive by rescuers, five remain untraceable.

Search and rescue efforts are being carried out by teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). A medical team and three ambulances have also been rushed to the site to assist in the operation.

In a separate incident linked to the extreme weather, the swelling Mokh river caused by heavy rains flooded Dhurma village in the same region, washing away six more houses.

The disaster comes just weeks after Nandanagar had already been grappling with land subsidence. In August, deep cracks had begun to appear on walls and roads in several parts of the town, forcing dozens of families to vacate their homes and move to safer locations.

Authorities have expressed concern that continued heavy rainfall may worsen the fragile terrain of the region, which is prone to landslides, flash floods, and subsidence. Monitoring is ongoing, and further evacuation measures may be taken if the situation deteriorates.

With PTI/IANS inputs