Red alert in several districts in Uttarakhand; houses flooded in Chamoli's Pipalkoti

Badrinath National Highway in Pipalkoti area in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district has been blocked due to debris triggered by a landslide, following intermittent rainfall. Several vehicles have also been buried under the debris.Chamoli District Magistrate, Himanshu Khurana told ANI that “Due to heavy debris falling from the mountain in Pipalkoti, many vehicles were buried under the debris and the roads have been closed.”The district magistrate said that at present there are vehicles buried under the debris and information has been received about one person buried under the debris in Pipalkoti.A college building also collapsed due to heavy rainfall in Dehradun.Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan took stock of disaster-affected areas in Kotdwar in the State on Sunday.The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had yesterday issued a red alert and predicted heavy rainfall with lightning in six districts of the state for the next twenty-four hours.It also forecast very heavy to extremely heavy rain/ thunderstorm accompanied with lightning and very intense to extremely intense spell is likely to occur at isolated places in Dehradun, Pauri, Tehri, Nainital, Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar.According to official estimates, 52 people had died due to rain-related incidents in this monsoon session while another 37 people sustained injuries. Heavy rains in Uttarakhand have triggered landslides and flash floods in several places.On the instructions of the chief minister, SDRF and NDRF personnel were deployed in places badly affected by rain-related incidents.With inputs from agencies