- By Shibra Arshad
- Sat, 20 Sep 2025 11:12 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Chamoli Landslide: As the rescue operation escalated after a rain-triggered landslide in Uttarakhand’s Kuntari Lagaphali, a heartbreaking end of a family surfaced, where a mother was found dead clutching her two 10-year-old twins in each arm. In an unforgettable sight, a 38-year-old, Kanta Devi, lay crushed beneath the rubble after a desperate battle against death and an effort to save her sons.
The heart-wrenching incident occurred in a quiet hill village, Kuntari Lagaphali, 50 km from Chamoli's district headquarters at Gopeshwar. The villagers and relatives descended into remorse after the discovery of five dead bodies, including three of the mother and her sons.
Kanta Devi's husband, Kunwar Singh, was rescued alive miraculously on Thursday, 16 hours after his house was razed to the ground by the rain-triggered landslide. While his survival was deemed miraculous, Kunwar Singh survived only to face the immeasurable pain of loss of family and ruined home.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) had been struggling hard for the past 32 hours, hoping for life in Kunwar Singh's house, buried under the rubble. Cutter machines were used to cut through the sludge, creating a path for entry.
Tragedy struck the village of Kuntari on Friday as the bodies of three individuals were recovered from the debris around 1:30 pm. The sombre scene unfolded after a rescue operation that began earlier in the day, leaving the area in a state of collective grief.
The devastation was triggered by a sudden flash flood from a nearby hill on Thursday morning, which ravaged Kuntari and several neighbouring villages.
The road was strewn with massive amounts of debris at four points beyond Nandanagar, causing significant traffic disruptions. In the nearby Scheduled Caste settlement of Sau-Tanola, just half a kilometre away, the disaster that struck on Thursday morning left eight families without homes.
With Inputs from ANI