Heavy rains in the past 24 hours have triggered a massive landslide on the border of Chamba and Lahaul and Spiti districts of Himachal, cutting off the tribal Pangi valley from the rest of the state.
The local meteorological station on Tuesday issued orange and yellow warnings of hailstorm, thunderstorm and lightning in the plains and higher hills and also predicted a wet spell up to April 13.
The remote Pangi valley of Chamba district was completely cut off from the rest of the state after a massive landslide on Monday night destroyed a 60-metre stretch of the Sansari-Kullu-Manali road in the district. About 40-50 people in private vehicles and taxis were stranded at Sugalwas and Kadu Nullah, with nearly all of them spending the night under severe cold wave conditions.
The severity of the landslide can be gauged from the fact that there is no trace of any road as a massive stretch of the hillside has collapsed, leaving no space, not even for pedestrians, to pass, eye-witnesses said.
The Border Road Organisation has begun the work of reopening the road, SDM Pangi Amandeep Singh told the PTI on Tuesday, adding that several stranded persons have been shifted to safer places.
Reports of hailstorms damaging the crops have also poured from some areas in the Shimla district.
Scattered rains occurred across the state, and Sarahan was the wettest with 38.5 mm of rain, followed by Bijahi 2 mm, Rohru 16 mm, Khadrala 7.2 mm, Kasol 5mm, Jogindernagar 4 mm and Dharamshala 3.4 mm.
The weather office issued an orange alert of hailstorm and thunderstorm accompanied by lightning and gusty winds of 40 to 60 kmph at isolated places in Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla and Solan districts on April 7.
It also issued a yellow warning of thunderstorm with lightning, gusty winds of 40 to 60 kmph at isolated places in Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Chamba on April 8 and in Sirmaur district on April 8 and 9.
The MeT station predicted light to moderate rains at most places in the lower and mid hills and rains or snow at most places in the higher hills on April 7 and 8, and a wet spell in the region up to April 13 as a fresh Western Disturbance is likely to affect the Northwestern Himalaya from April 11.
Meanwhile, minimum temperatures dropped by a few notches and stayed below normal, and Kalpa and Kukumseri were the coldest with a low of 0.4 degrees each.
The maximum temperatures also stayed three to nine degrees below normal, and Una and Solan recorded a high of 23.6 degrees and 18.5 degrees, 9.2 degrees and 9.1 degrees below normal.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
