40 foreign tourists stranded in Himachal Pradesh, rescued and taken to safer locations 

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], July 12 : Forty stranded foreign nationals, including 14 Russian citizens, who were stranded in the flood-ravaged state were rescued to safer locations, said an official on Wednesday. 

Confirming this to ANI, the officiating Director General of Police (DGP), Satwant Atwal Trivedi, said that out of those 2000 rescues, 40 were foreign nationals, including 14 Russian citizens in Kasol. Some of them were rescued from other parts of the Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti districts of the state.

“Everybody in Kasol, including the foreigners, are safe. 40 foreigners contacted us, and there could be others in other parts of the state, but all are safe. All 14 Russians are safe, they have been brought down from Kasol, and Australians were also, and they were connected to their people in Delhi. To give you a breakup on a national basis, there were Spanish, Russian, Israeli, Romanian, German, Australian, one American, and two Irish ladies in Chandratal. They are also being rescued," Trivedi said.

The Kullu district police found 13 bodies in the Beas River on Wednesday. 

“13 bodies have been found, and the identification is yet to be made,” said Trivedi. 

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh is conducting a virtual review at the Secretariat regarding the situation arising due to the monsoon in the state. 

As per data available from the Himachal Pradesh Disaster Management Authority, over 40000 tourists were stranded in flood-hit regions of the state.

The DGP said that rescue and relief work is being done after the rain and floods. She said that over 1,500 people contacted the Himachal Pradesh Police who were stranded in different locations. She said that over 2000 people were rescued from the Kasol area of the Kullu district until Wednesday afternoon; others in the Lahaul-Spiti district are being moved out of the region.

"Whatever information we have, we have been able to identify people, and all of them are safe. We are trying to establish their connection with their friends and families,” said Satwant Atwal Trivedi, the officiating director general of Himachal Pradesh police.

“Yes, I got information from SP Kullu that 13 bodies were recovered by the police in Beas River in Kullu and the identification process is on, we shall have to take them to postmortem and I will not be able to comment much on this until we don’t have confirmation of identification on it,”  she further said

The Chief Minister did an aerial survey in the region, the Revenue Minister and CPS are monitoring the operation in Lahaul-Spiti. She said that over 1500 people were connected here.

“As far as people in Sissu are concerned, roads have washed away. We have established an alternate route through Teling village. Locals have been helping enthusiastically. We have moved more than 150 vehicles from Atal Tunnel.  Efforts are on to rescue stranded tourists from Chandaratal. We have connected more than 1500 families to the people stranded there through the control room we have established. We are scanning social media to gather more details.  People have been sending us vehicle registration numbers. Now the rescued people have been posting videos on social media.” said the DGP

As per disaster management available with the Himachal Pradesh Disaster Management Authority, over 40000 tourists were stranded in the flood-hit regions of the state.

“Between 25 to 40,000, people were stranded in the Manali and Kullu areas. Most of them have started moving out, and others who have left will be evacuated comfortably, but around 200 to 300 people are still stranded in Chandratal; they could have been rescued and evacuated, but they want to leave with their vehicles. Due to heavy snowfall, there is a problem evacuating them from there. That is why today the work of opening the road is being done, and tourists will be taken out from other regions and brought to safer locations in the same way between Telling and Pagal Nala, which is around two and a half hundred. The people who were stranded have been completely evacuated. The vehicles that are stuck in Shishu Pagal Nala and Keylong will also be evacuated later this afternoon,” Principal Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management Onkar Chand Sharma said earlier today.

He said that most of the roads have been restored, and the restoration and connectivity of mobile, electricity, and water supply are being restored.

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