“My Brother’s Last Rites…”: Family Loses 3 Generations In Shimla Landslide

Rain-related incidents in Himachal Pradesh has claimed over 60 lives this monsoon

Shimla:

The surviving members of a family who lost seven of their loved ones – three generations in total –  in a landslide in Shimla are desperately waiting for rescuers to find the bodies. They want to perform the last rites and pay their respects to the dead, including three children.

Seven members of the family, including the three children, were inside a temple when it collapsed due to the landslide triggered by a cloudburst on Monday.

“My brother, three children, sister-in-law, five others including one of our daughters are gone. Rescuers are trying to find the bodies. At least I want to perform their last rites, the last rites of my brother too before my time to go comes,” Vinod, the brother of one of the men in the family, Pawan, who died in the incident, told NDTV today.

Two bodies are yet to be found.

The family, sitting at their silent home, appear visibly broken from the immense loss they have suffered.

“This pain will stay with me for the rest of my life,” a woman in the family told NDTV.

Pawan’s younger sister, who was not in Shimla, said one of the family members called her on phone and informed about the incident. “They said the road to Shimla is also blocked,” she said.

“We just want to find the body of our brother and the others,” Pawan’s elder sister also told NDTV. “Seven of my family members are gone. They were asking me to come here. But I didn’t. Maybe I wasn’t destined to die yet. They went to the temple, never to return. I just want to get my brother’s body, so that we can do the final rites. Our family has been destroyed,” she said.

Rain-related incidents in Himachal Pradesh has claimed over 60 lives this monsoon. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the state has suffered a loss of Rs 10,000 crore owing to environmental and property damage and casualties.

Over 800 people were evacuated on Wednesday from low-lying areas in Kangra near Pong Dam as villages became inaccessible due to rising water level in the reservoir.