Family members of the around 30 people who went missing following flash floods triggered by a cloudburst here on July 31 have begun losing hope as the search and rescue operations to trace the victims entered the seventh day on Wednesday amid incessant rains.
Sharing details about the ongoing operation in Samej village in Shimla, assistant commanding officer, National Disaster Response Force Karam Singh, said, "It is raining but the joint search and rescue operations are underway."
"The water level is rising in Sutlej River and slides are also occurring at multiple places. JCBs and other machines are being used to clear the roads. Our soldiers are skilled and cross the river through ropes to search the sites where there is any possibility of finding the missing people", Singh added.
Samej falls under Sarpara Panchayat in Rampur subdivision of Shimla district and borders the Kullu district.
The family members of the missing persons who have been camping at the site for the past seven days have now lost hope and are praying for the recovery of bodies to perform last rites.
"The entire family including my brother, two sisters-in-law, daughter-in-law, nephews and niece are missing," said Moti Ram who along with one of his daughter-in-law and grandson survived as they were out of home when the tragedy struck.
The water level in the river is increasing and the rescue teams are facing a lot of difficulty due to the continuous rains, said Kair Singh, a local.
Meanwhile, the local meteorological office issued an orange alert of heavy to very heavy rain, thunderstorm and lightning at isolated places in the state for Wednesday and Saturday.
The Met also said that monsoon activity is likely to intensify in the next five to six days with fairly widespread rains .
So far 16 deaths have been reported due to flash floods and cloudbursts in three districts of Himachal Pradesh on July 31 midnight and over 35 people are still missing in Kullu's Nirmand, Sainj and Malana, Mandi's Padhar and Shimla's Rampur subdivision.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kangana Ranaut who visited Samej village on Tuesday and other parts of Shimla and Kullu accused the state Congress government of doing "nothing" to help the victims.
According to the officials, 410 rescuers from teams of the Army, NDRF, State Disaster Response Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force, Himachal Pradesh police and home guards are involved in the hunt and rescuers have intensified the search operation by deploying more machinery, sniffer dog squad, drones and other equipment.
A total of 93 people were killed in rain-related incidents between June 27 and August 6 and the state suffered losses amounting to Rs 748 crore.
