Himachal rains: NDRF rescues 10 people trapped at Mandi's Kol Dam

A team of the 14 Battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) after an overnight operation rescued ten people who were trapped in the reservoir at the Kol Dam Hydel Project in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district, PTI reported on Monday citing officials. Among the 10 people rescued in the rain-hit state, five were employees of the forest department.

The five forest department employees along with a few locals were gone to take stock of the situation as a large number of logs had floated into the reservoir following heavy rains in the past few days.

The officials said to PTI that their boat got trapped due to heavy silt and logs near Tattapani.


On Sunday night, the NDRF team left for the site in a steamer boat of the dam authority around 11:30 pm while one of the NDRF swimmers anchored the boat.

The rescue operation was completed around 2:30 am, officials said.

It was a difficult operation as navigation became tough during the night. All the ten people have been rescued safely, Deputy Commissioner, Mandi, Arindam Chaudhary, who was at the spot, told PTI.

According to the latest information provided by the state government, the total monetary loss in Himachal has reached Rs 8014.61 crore since June 24.

A total of 2,022 houses have been fully damaged, and 9,615 houses have been partially damaged, with 113 landslides occurring in this year's monsoon season.

A total of 224 lost lives in the monsoon fury while 117 people died in road accidents in the state so far, according to the government bulletin.

Seventeen bodies have been recovered to date in the Summer Hill incident and further operations are underway to recover the missing bodies.

(With inputs from Agencies)