A cloudburst in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district early Sunday left two construction workers dead and seven missing as monsoon covered the entire country almost a week earlier than usual, bringing rain in the national capital and other northern states, triggering landslides in several hilly areas and sending rivers into spate.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for heavy rainfall on June 29 and 30 in various districts of Uttarakhand, including Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Dehradun, Tehri, Pauri, Haridwar and Nainital. Authorities have put the Chardham yatra on hold for a day for the safety of pilgrims.
The Shimla Meteorological Centre has also issued a red alert for very heavy downpour in 10 districts of Himachal Pradesh, where the death toll from rain-related incidents climbed to 20 since the onset of monsoon in the state on June 20.
In Uttarakhand, a landslide triggered by a cloudburst destroyed the shelters of workers engaged in the construction of a hotel along the Yamunotri National Highway in Uttarkashi district, officials said.
There were 29 labourers at the campsite when the landslide occurred washing away around 10 metres of the highway. Twenty of them were evacuated to safety while nine went missing, the district emergency operation centre said.
Bodies of two missing labourers were recovered from the banks of the Yamuna River near Tiladi Shaheed Smarak, about 18 km from the place where the landslide occurred, police said.
The labourers are said to be of Nepalese origin.
NDRF, SDRF and police personnel are carrying out search and rescue operations at the site, District Magistrate Prashant Arya said.
The highway was blocked by landslide debris, he said, adding pilgrims returning from Yamunotri have been asked to stay at safe locations due to the blocked highway, he said.
The Chardham Yatra has been postponed for a day as a precautionary step and a decision on further travel will be taken after reviewing the weather conditions along the routes on Monday, Garhwal Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said.
In Himachal Pradesh, three more deaths were reported in rain-related incidents since Saturday. One person each drowned in Una and Bilaspur districts while a person died after falling from a height in the Shimla district, according to the state emergency operation centre.
Services on the Shimla-Kalka rail line -- a UNESCO world heritage -- were suspended on Sunday after boulders and trees fell on the tracks following overnight rains in Solan district. A bridge in Solan's Barotiwala industrial area was also washed away.
A landslide near Koti on the Shimla-Kalka National Highway (NH-5), connecting Shimla and Chandigarh, damaged some stretches of the road, resulting in a two to three-km-long traffic jam for hours.
Bald River in the Baddi area of the district is swelling and there are reports of water up to four feet entering over 20 houses in Shivalik Nagar in Jhadmajri. The water level in Mandi's Juni Khad and Beas River has increased and the local administration has appealed to people not to go to the river bank and stay alert.
All five spillway gates of Pandoh Dam were opened on Sunday morning, resulting in an increase in water level in Beas River.
The local met office cautioned of moderate to high flash flood risk in parts of 10 districts -- Bilaspur, Chamba, Hamirpur, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Shimla, Solan, Sirmaur and Una -- till Monday.
According to IMD data, this is the earliest the monsoon has covered the entire country since 2020, when it did so by June 26.
The monsoon arrived in Delhi two days after the normal date of June 27, the IMD said.
"The monsoon has further advanced into remaining parts of Rajasthan, west Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and the entire Delhi today, June 29, 2025," the IMD said in a statement.
According to the Met department, Chandigarh received 119.5 mm of rain in the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Sunday. Among other places in Punjab, rains lashed Ferozepur, Mohali, Ludhiana, Patiala, Pathankot and Rupnagar.
The IMD said that heavy to very heavy rain is likely to continue in many parts of northwest, central, east and northeast India over the next seven days.
The IMD on Sunday issued a 'red' alert, predicting extremely heavy rainfall in parts of Jharkhand till July 1, an official said.
Jharkhand's capital Ranchi, which has been experiencing light to moderate rainfall since Sunday morning, is likely to receive heavy rainfall till the morning of July 2, the IMD official added.
At least 162 students, trapped in an inundated private residential school in the state's East Singhbhum district after heavy rain, were rescued by the police on Sunday, a senior officer said.
The students were stranded in the school located at Pandarsoli on the Haldipokhar-Kowali Road in Kowali police station area since Saturday night after the premises got flooded due to heavy rain.
"We received information that 162 students of Lav Kush Residential School were trapped as the school premises were inundated due to heavy rain. As the school building was submerged, the teachers shifted all the students to the rooftop, where they spent the night.
"On being informed around 5.30 am today, police officers and fire brigade teams rushed to the spot and rescued the students one by one with the help of villagers," Superintendent of Police (Rural) Rishabha Garg told PTI.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Sunday asked the officials of the disaster management department and district administrations to remain alert. Jharkhand has recorded 80 per cent surplus rainfall from June 1 to June 28.
In Odisha, several rivers including Budhabalang, Subarnarekha, Jalaka and Sono are witnessing rising water levels and may cause flooding by Monday, an official warned. The state government has placed the Balasore district administration on high alert.
Meanwhile, the railway link to Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam was partially restored on Sunday, six days after it was snapped due to landslides in the Lumding-Badarpur hill section of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), officials said.
Limited train operations are being allowed for the time being, with normalisation of movement expected by Monday, they said.
"The first goods train and first passenger train (Kanchenjunga Express) crossed the landslide-affected location at Jatinga Lampur after restoration," an NFR spokesperson said.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that besides rail connectivity, partial road communication through landslide-hit Dima Hasao district, mainly to Barak Valley in the southern part of the state, will be restored by Sunday.
The rain-bearing system usually makes its onset over Kerala by June 1 and covers the entire country by July 8. It starts retreating from northwest India around September 17 and withdraws completely by October 15.
This year, the monsoon reached Kerala on May 24, its earliest onset over the Indian mainland since 2009, when it arrived on May 23.
Authorities opened 13 shutters of the Mullaperiyar Dam in Kerala on Sunday, releasing water into the Periyar River as the water level neared full capacity. The water level rose due to the heavy rainfall in the dam's catchment areas over the past few days.
Earlier, authorities had placed several villages on high alert. More than 20 relief camps have been set up, and local police and revenue officials have been instructed to assist with any necessary relocations.
The monsoon is crucial for India's agriculture sector, which supports the livelihood of around 42 per cent of the population and contributes 18.2 per cent to the GDP. It also plays a key role in replenishing reservoirs essential for drinking water and power generation.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
