Huge landslide crumbles hillside homes within seconds in northern India amid heavy rain
Multi-storeyed houses have crumbled in northern India after a landslide struck a hilly region amid widespread rainfall that has wreaked havoc there in the last few weeks.
The crumbling of the buildings was filmed on Thursday morning in a commercial area of Anni, a town in the Kullu district of the Himachal Pradesh state that lies along the Himalayan range.
Initial reports said there was no loss of life because the buildings were evacuated a few days ago due to the increase in risk seen from the heavy rain and thunderstorms in the area.
Emergency response teams such as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Himachal Pradesh State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), have been deployed to rescue those feared trapped in the landslide.
Video shared by local media outlets showed eight to nine multi-storeyed buildings standing at a slope of a hill starting to crumble one by one and turning into rubble after a landslide strikes.
“Disturbing visuals emerge from Anni, Kullu, depicting a massive commercial building collapsing amidst a devastating landslide,” Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on X, formerly Twitter.
“It’s noteworthy that the administration had identified the risk and successfully evacuated the building two days ago.”
Himachal Pradesh has been battered by continuous rain, cloudbursts and landslides in the past few weeks which have killed dozens of people.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for the region and warned of imminent heavy to very heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh for the next two days.
While the monsoon season often gets deadly in Himachal, with several factors such as rampant and environmentally unsuitable construction making it highly vulnerable, rainfall this year has been more disastrous.
Assessments by scientists show the rising global average temperatures due to man-made climate crisis is leading to increased atmospheric evaporation and humidity levels, prompting more frequent and sudden extreme rain.
In July, record monsoon showers killed more than 100 people over two weeks in parts of northern India, including Himachal Pradesh, which was one of the worst-hit states.
– The Independent
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