A house was seen collapsing due to a landslide in a terrifying video from Uttarakhand today. Several areas in Nainital were hit by the landslides early this morning due to which cracks appeared in various houses. The cracks gradually widened leading to the collapse.
In the video, the two-storey house was seen sliding down a slope and collapsing to the ground with a loud thud.
There are no casualties as the house, with around a dozen rooms, was vacated ahead of the accident. The surrounding houses in Nainital’s Mallital area are also being evacuated now.
Rain-related disasters have claimed the lives of 111 people and affected 45,650 families in Uttarakhand this year, the state assembly was told earlier this month.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Premchand Agarwal said natural disasters triggered by heavy rain led to the deaths of 111 people and injuries to 72. The disasters also affected 45,650 families, who have been granted financial assistance of Rs 30.40 crore, he said, responding to a question by Opposition members in the assembly.
Flooding and landslides are common and cause widespread devastation during the monsoon season, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
Scientists blame a clash of weather systems triggered by global warming for the torrential rains this monsoon season that have battered the country’s Himalayan states – Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand – killing hundreds and causing damages worth crores of rupees this monsoon season.
Rains hit the two states following the convergence of the monsoon system with Western Disturbances, a weather system that originates in the Mediterranean Sea and moves east, bringing moisture-laden winds that cause winter rain and snow in the Himalayas.
“Think of it as a collision of two forceful systems,” said Kuldeep Srivastava, head of the India Meteorological Department’s regional centre in New Delhi.
“It causes significant rain or even cloudbursts … we are noticing in the last few years, intense spells of rain lasting short durations,” he said.
The number of very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall days per decade in India’s Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh (HP) and neighbouring Uttarakhand increased to 118 between 2011 and 2020 from 74 in the preceding decade, data from the weather office showed.
The monsoon brings South Asia around 80 per cent of its annual rainfall and is vital for both agriculture and the livelihoods of millions. But it also brings destruction every year in the form of landslides and floods.
