Indian flood toll mounts to 150

Indian men watch the rising waters of the Yamuna river from a bridge in New Delhi yesterday. Photo: AFP

With skies clearing, rescue of stranded people and relief operations intensified yesterday in Uttarakhand in India where the death toll in the rain and floods shot up to 150 as thousands of pilgrims still remained stranded.
Reports suggested that the famous Kedarnath shrine, where 50 people died in the landslide that accompanied torrential rain and flash floods, is intact notwithstanding the heavy damage all around.

Submerged buses and trucks near the Tibetan market in New Delhi. Military helicopters dropped emergency supplies yesterday to thousands of tourists and pilgrims stranded by flash floods that tore through towns and temples in northern India, killing at least 150 people. Photo: AFP

With rains ceasing in the last two days, there were no fresh incidents of landslides and flooding.
Accompanied by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an aerial survey of the worst-hit areas.
It would take one year to restore normalcy on the road to Kedarnath from the after effects of the cloud burst which he described as a "Himalayan tsunami".
22 killed in Nepal
At least 22 people have been killed in landslides and floods triggered by heavy monsoon rain in remote parts of Nepal, a government spokesman said yesterday. More than 100 homes have also been damaged by the floods.