A dramatic video of a truck stranded in the middle of a swelling river in Uttarakhand has gone viral on social media, adding to the alarm over the damage caused by flooding due to incessant rain in the hill state that has claimed 75 lives in the last two months.
The short video clip, from Motadhak village in the Pauri Garhwal district, shows more than half of a goods truck submerged in the muddy river water lashing it from the front.
A bridge across the Malan River in the village broke down last month, forcing trucks from the factories in the industrial area to cross through the river.
Last evening, while one of the trucks was trying to cross the river, the water level rose suddenly and the truck got stuck in the strong current of the river.
Uttarakhand has faced extensive damage from heavy rains over the past few days. More than 250 roads have been damaged and shut down due to landslides, including patches of the national highway. Hundreds of villages have been cut off from district headquarters. The government says 75 people have died in the monsoon season across the state since June 15. 43 people have been injured, and 19 are still missing, in rain-related incidents. More than 1,400 houses have been damaged.
There's little hope for relief for another week.
The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert for the next two days and also predicted rain in most parts of the state after August 22. There might be relief from the rains after two to three days, the weather office said.
The rains in the last 24 hours have affected Kotdwar and Chamoli's Tharali area. There has been heavy damage to agricultural land and houses due to a cloudburst in Tharali, while the Malan River in Kotdwar received heavy rain late in the evening.
