Waiting for floods, they didn’t know what hit them

It was with the fear of Pareechu swirling in their heads that people living along the Sutlej had gone to sleep. They woke up this morning to...

It was with the fear of Pareechu swirling in their heads that people living along the Sutlej had gone to sleep. They woke up this morning to hear a cloudburst has swallowed two and snapped the town’s cable connection.

The rumble of falling rocks and silt woke up some in this township around 5.45 am. The cloud had burst atop the Jakatkhana village in Kullu, across the short Bailey bridge on the Sutlej, burying two persons and leaving 10 injured.

Security personnel of the Ist battalion of the ITBP, who had been waiting for the floods in a school, swung into action and rescued the labourers. Around noon, Sheroo Pradhan (65), the head pledar, was found buried in the debris. Security personnel said it all began with an early morning rescue call by a panch of Brow village. ‘‘Even though the area falls in Kullu district, my men rushed to free three women trapped inside their house,’’ says Commandant V.K. Sharma. Five buildings, including the office of cable operator Bhupinder Singh of Shimla, were reduced to rubble.

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‘‘We managed to escape, but it swept away all our belongings,’’ said Prem Chand, a labourer. Sanjeev Sood, a businessman across the bridge, said the residents had brought this trouble on themselves by building on the nullah.

‘‘There are problems every monsoon, God knows why people build their houses everywhere,’’ says Hav Kartar Singh, still covered in mud. At his office in Sarahan, their commandant seems pleased with the day’s work. ‘‘The Ministry of Home Affairs has appointed us as the nodal agency for rescue operations, so it’s our duty,’’ he says. Sharma should know, for he has been part of the UN peacekeeping force and the PM’s security. And his men have taken part in rescue operations in Iran and Bhuj. He is also confident of tackling the floods: ‘‘In 2000, there was zero warning and zero preparation, this time, there is ample warning and 100 pc preparation.”