Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) [India], July 10 : The displaced residents of Thunag in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, where torrential rains and flash floods wreaked havoc, said they had never seen such flooding and recounted the horror they endured.
Thunag in Mandi district is severely affected by the torrential rains and flash floods on the night of June 30 and July 1.
"That day, there was such a storm that nothing remained standing. Livestock, our cattle, everything is gone," a local resident told ANI.
"I had 100 goats and 4 cows, and all of them are gone. There is nothing there. Three houses are gone too...If you see the area there, you won't even feel that there were houses there...10 families lived there. Only our family survived. We are living on the upper reaches now and everyone is helping us but there is nothing left on the lower reaches...We had never seen such flooding," he added.
"The storm was so severe that there was nothing left in its way. All our livestock and properties were destroyed. My goats and cows were killed. I have three hoses which were destroyed in the flash flood. There is nothing left," another resident told ANI.
More than 85 people have been killed in the state in the calamity, including 17 in Mandi; over 35 are still missing. Several people have been rendered homeless. Hundreds of people are living in different shelter homes.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Leader of the Opposition Jairam Thakur jointly inspected the Thunag market area on Wednesday.
According to an official press release, both leaders met with the people who suffered due to this natural calamity and assured them of every possible help.
While speaking to the media, the CM said that he will travel to Delhi to meet the Union Ministers and will strongly place the demand for a special relief package to rehabilitate and provide relief to the disaster-affected people.
Earlier, the students of the College of Horticulture and Forestry, Thunag in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district, which was severely impacted by torrential rains and flash floods on the night of June 30 and July 1, urged the state government to postpone their university examinations and consider relocation or merger of the college with safer campuses.
A delegation of students met Horticulture and Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi at the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat to submit their demands and seek immediate relief.
Aditi Sood, a fourth-year forestry student at the flood-hit college, described the trauma they went through, calling it a night that changed their lives.
"What we witnessed during the cloudburst on the night of June 30 was beyond imagination. We are still trying to recover mentally. First-year students are completely unstable. We cannot travel back, nor are we mentally or physically fit to stay there. The situation is unsafe. Even parents are refusing to send their children back to a place that felt like a death trap," she said."Our mental stability is shattered. How can we write exams?" Sood said.
"We have requested that the government that the first-year exams should be either based on internal assessment or postponed. We also demanded that the college be relocated or merged with another institute. The minister has assured full cooperation, but we need clear and urgent action," she said.