A cloudburst occurred in the early hours of Sunday in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district, which has been the worst-hit area since the onset of the monsoon. Fortunately, no loss of human life was reported, officials confirmed.
The incident was reported in Swad village, located in the Shilabudhani gram panchayat. While there were no casualties, damage to agricultural land and local infrastructure was noted. The authorities advised local villagers to avoid going near the seasonal rivulet nearby, where water levels had risen sharply.
"The cloudburst was reported over a nullah (seasonal rivulet) resulting in increased water level in the rivulet. Human habitation is far away from the affected area, but agricultural land was washed away in the incident," a government official said.
Since the monsoon began in the state on June 20, Himachal Pradesh has recorded 18 cloudburst incidents — 15 of them in Mandi alone, particularly in the Seraj constituency. The remaining three were in Kullu district.
Tragically, 14 lives have already been lost in these cloudburst events, and 31 people — including women and children — remain missing in Mandi.
Search operations continued at Skoli Khad in Pangliyur village (Chachyot subdivision), with police and disaster response teams using drones to trace the missing. So far, the efforts have not yielded results, and the search will go on.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for extremely heavy rainfall in Mandi, Kangra, and Sirmaur districts for Sunday. An orange alert is in place for seven districts, including Una, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Chamba, Kullu, Shimla, and Solan. Several parts of Kangra, Chamba, Mandi, Shimla, and Sirmaur are also under flood risk.
The IMD has issued an orange alert for the entire state on July 7 and 8, and a yellow alert for July 9.
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