Kinnaur: A massive landslide in Batseri on Sangla-Chitkul road in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday killed nine persons and injured at least four others. Huge boulders rolled down the mountain following the landslide and destroyed an iron Bailey bridge and many vehicles parked along the road within a few seconds.

A tourist vehicle, which was reportedly carrying about 11 tourists from Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Chattisgarh, was hit by boulders near Gunsa, killing nine tourists. A couple of videos of this heart-wrenching incident went viral on social media. In the video, some people can be heard whistling and shouting to warn others.

“Nine people died, and three were injured after boulders rolled downhill due to a landslide in Kinnaur district. Batseri bridge collapsed in the incident. A rescue team is present at the spot,” Superintendent of Police (SP), Kinnaur, Saju Ram Rana said.

The intensity with which boulders hit could be assessed from the fact that the iron bailey bridge on the Baspa river collapsed instantly. 

On receiving the information, teams of district police and Indo-Tibetan Border Police rushed to the spot and initiated a rescue operation. The district administration was also assessing the situation. As per reports, rocks sliding down from the hilltop made the rescue operation difficult for the teams.

As per initial reports, a request was made to make a helicopter available to aid rescue work, which was yet to be fulfilled.

Chief Minister Jairam Thakur also expressed grief over the incident. An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh was announced for the deceased while injured would be given Rs. 50 thousand.

किन्नौर के बटसेरी में पहाड़ी दरकने से हुए हादसे में पर्यटकों के एक वाहन में 9 की मृत्यु व 2 घायल तथा 1 अन्य राहगीर के घायल होने की सूचना दुःखद है। pic.twitter.com/MbbVBmSHAY

— CMO HIMACHAL (@CMOFFICEHP) July 25, 2021

The exact cause behind the landslide was yet to be ascertained.

The deceased were identified as:

1. Pratiksha Sunil Patil (27) from Sadhbhawna Nagar, Nagpur, Maharashtra
2. Deepa Sharma (34) from Jaipur
3. Amoghi Bapat (27) from Korba Darri in Chhatisgarh
4. Umrab Singh (42) of Tagore Garden West Delhi
5. Kumar Ulhas vedpathak (37)
6. Anurag Biyani (31) from Sikar in Rajasthan, his mother Maya Devi Biyani (55) and his sister Richa Biyani (25)
7. Satish Katakbar (34) from Chhatisgarh.

Those injured have been identified as Shiril Obroy (39) from West Delhi, Naveen Bhardwaj (37) from Kaharar in Mohali and Ranjeet Singh (45) from Batseri in Sangla.

An ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in an accident in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh. Rs. 50,000 would be given to the injured: PM @narendramodi

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 25, 2021

Shimla-Himachal Pradesh has reported a rise in daily casualties during the last three days. While 437 new cases were detected, 10 persons succumbed to the infection. in the last three days. According to the HP Health Department, state’s positivity rate for the last week – from July 5-July 11- was 1.0. Compared to a total of eight deaths in the entire week, Himachal has reported 10 deaths in the last three days of the ongoing week.

The State’s Covid death tally has now reached 3486. The number of active cases was 1150 on Thursday. The daily sampling remains between ten 10,000 to 15,000.

The state government has further discontinued vaccination for the 18-44 age group till 22 July. However, vaccination of other groups will continue. 

Himachal’s tourist spots continue to receive a large number of visitors daily. During the last month, after the HP government lifted all restrictions on inter-state movement, tourists had been over-crowding popular tourist destinations, especially Dharamshala, Shimla, and Manali, to such an extent that the Union Health Ministry, as well as, the Prime Minister had to warn states over the violation of guidelines regarding the “Covid-Appropriate Behavior”.

As both locals and tourists were observed to have become carefree and caring a little about social distancing or creating large gatherings, the state government on July 14 issued a fresh advisory to follow the “Covid-19 Appropriate Behavior” (CAB) to mitigate the third wave.

However, a widespread lack of awareness has been reported, due to which the public is not taking the warnings of the third wave and CAB guidelines seriously.  

In several instances, the state government found itself helpless in preventing large gatherings and violation of CAB guidelines. Over-crowded buses and carriage vehicles, for instance, is a common scene against the permitted capacity of 50%. The health experts had been insisting that successful implementation of SOPs at the mass level is not possible without the co-operation of the people. However, the current methods of the state government for creating awareness has failed to appeal to the majority of the people, which is making compliance of guidelines next to impossible. 

Shimla-Class 12 results of the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education, Dharamshala, for the session 2020-21 were announced on July 14, 2021. The result was assessed to be 92.77% this year, comparatively higher than the previous year.

Pushpender, a student of Ambition Classes Senior Secondary School, Mohal, Kullu district- scored 100% marks (500/500). 31 candidates scored 99%.

Due to the prevailing pandemic situation, the HPBOSE couldn’t conduct this year’s annual exams for class 12 except for the English subject. The Board had decided to promote the students for which it evolved  “Objective Criteria” to assess the students based on Continuous Comprehensive Assessment (CCA) and Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE).

A total of 100799 students had appeared in the class, of which 76996 were from government schools and 14352 from private schools. 93438 students passed.

As many as 3679 students secured marks between 90-100%– again higher than the previous session.

The HPBOSE said the Result Tabulation Policy has benefited a large number of class 12 candidates.

Further, the Board said if a candidate is not satisfied with the awards or marks granted based on the “Objective Criteria”, he/she will be given an opportunity, probably in August or September to improve the score. The merit list will be prepared only after the conclusion and compilation of results after these exams.

Students can inquire about their results at 01892-242139 (Mandi, Lahaul-Spiti), 242140 (Kangra), 242141 (Shimla, Kinnaur, Hamirpur), 242142 (Chamba, Bilaspur, Kullu), 242150 (Una, Solan, Sirmaur). Students can also check their results at the official HPBOSE website.