HP: Over 200 still stuck in Lahaul-Spiti, three trekkers go missing

State Disaster Management Director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta in a statement said the stranded people could not be evacuated as sorties by helicopter to evacuate them could not be carried out due to bad weather.

The sorties to rescue them have now been planned for Friday, if the weather permits, he added.

Mokhta said of the 221 stranded in the district’s Udaipur, 191 are from parts of Himachal Pradesh while 30 are from seven other states.

Among the stranded, 13 are from Punjab, four from New Delhi, three each from Maharashtra and Odisha, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and one each from Jharkhand, Karnataka and Ladakh.

Besides, 106 people are from Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu, 51 from Mandi, 12 from Chamba, nine from Bilaspur, five from Kangra, three from Shimla, two each from Solan and Sirmaur and one from Hamirpur.

Mokhhta said three trekkers have also gone missing in the district. While one of them is from Rajasthan, details of the other two are not known yet.

Mokhta said according to information received from the Sissu police check-post, Nikunj Jaiswal of Bikaner in Rajasthan and his two companions had left for trekking to Ghepan Peak Lake on Monday and were supposed to come back on July 29.

Lahaul & Spiti: ITBP personnel during a search & rescue operation after a flood at Tozing nallah in Lahaul & Spiti. (PTI Photo)

However, they did not reach their destination and the search for them has been launched, he said.

Meanwhile, Mokhta said the NH-707 was closed to traffic after a major landslide at Badwas in Sirmaur’s Paonta Sahib at 12.04 pm on Friday.

Vehicles have been diverted to a road passing through to Uttarakhand’s Vikasnagar for a smooth flow of traffic, he added.