Parents, Grandmother Swept Away, 11-Month-Old Girl Survives In Himachal

An 11-month-old girl miraculously survived, but her parents and grandmother were swept away in a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district last week. The incident took place at night around 1 am, but the girl was found in the morning alone in the house - completely unaware of the tragedy.

It was raining extremely heavily when the incident occurred. Due to this, the rainwater was entering the family's house, following which Ramesh Kumar (father), Radha Devi (mother), and Poonam Devi (grandmother) went out to divert the water flow. During this time, a landslide occurred, killing all three of the family.

As the risk of more landslides increased, the victims' neighbours who were living above them climbed down to their house. When they reached around 2 am, they found that only the baby girl was in the house.

According to the girl's uncle, they were informed about the incident the next day by the neighbours.

"It was raining a lot that night. The rainwater was coming into their house, so they decided to divert the water. The girl was sleeping. They had no idea about the cloudburst. When they were cleaning, a landslide took place. Their neighbours, who used to stay above them, came around 2 am. They saw that only the girl was sleeping inside. In the morning, around 5-5:30 am, around 12-13 of us went to their house," he told NDTV.

As the water level was too high, they initially could not cross the bridge to go to his brother's house, he said.

However, when the water level reduced, they launched a search operation.

"This is when we found my brother's dead body," he said.

While Ramesh's body was found under debris, the mother and the grandmother are still missing, with the SRDF engaged in search operations.

According to the girl's uncle, they have received many calls in the past few days for the baby's adoption.

"We won't give her away, we will raise her," he said.

At least 78 people died in Himachal Pradesh since the onset of monsoon on June 20 - out of which 50 people died in rain-related incidents such as landslides, flash floods, and cloudbursts, while 28 deaths were reported in road accidents, the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) said. The heavy downpour has caused massive disaster, with the state reporting 23 flash floods, followed by 19 cloud burst incidents and 16 landslides so far.

Mandi district, severely impacted by cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides, saw the highest number of deaths. The flash floods have sent 280 roads, including 156 in Mandi, out of bounds for traffic.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a flash flood alert in 10 districts today.

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