Wed Jul 02 01:20:00 UTC 2025: **Headline: Torrential Rains Trigger Chaos Across India: Landslides, Floods, and Blackouts Reported**
**New Delhi, India** – Heavy monsoon rains have unleashed widespread devastation across India, triggering floods, landslides, and power outages in multiple states. Himachal Pradesh is among the worst hit, with ten cloudburst incidents reported in the Mandi district on Monday night.
The resulting flash floods have left at least 16 people missing. As of Tuesday evening, authorities had recovered five bodies, with search and rescue operations underway for the remaining eleven. Several homes were swept away in Kathunag, Mandi. Over 100 villages in the Karasog, Dharampur, Bagshyad, Thunag, and Gohar regions of Mandi have been without power for over 24 hours. The state remains under an orange alert for heavy rainfall.
Elsewhere, the Ganges River in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, is rising rapidly, increasing at a rate of 50mm per hour. The water level has risen by 2 meters in the past 24 hours, reaching Manikarnika Ghat and disrupting access to Ganga Dwar. The Sharda River is also overflowing in Lakhimpur.
In Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, torrential rainfall has inundated city streets with over two feet of water. The city, along with three other districts, received over 2 inches of rain in the past 24 hours.
Madhya Pradesh is experiencing continuous rainfall since Wednesday morning, with a strong weather system expected to remain active for the next four days. Heavy flooding has already been reported in Neemuch, with the Neemuch-Kota National Highway near Tal village closed due to the overflowing Rojdi River.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued alerts for various states. A yellow alert for heavy rainfall and thunderstorms is in place for 26 districts in Bihar, including Patna, Begusarai, Bhagalpur, and Purnia. In Punjab, monsoon activity has brought respite from the heat, but a yellow alert for thunderstorms has been issued for Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, and Rupnagar.
Heavy rain is expected to continue in Uttar Pradesh, with 13 districts under a heavy rain alert and 38 districts at risk of lightning strikes. Jharkhand is also experiencing heavy rainfall, particularly in the south-eastern, eastern, and north-eastern districts, prompting warnings for lightning strikes.
Orange alerts for heavy rainfall have been issued for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Eastern Rajasthan, Gujarat, Central Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha, and Arunachal Pradesh. Yellow alerts are in effect for Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Western Rajasthan, Saurashtra-Kutch, Bihar, Jharkhand, Sikkim, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha-Marathwada, Telangana, Northern Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Puducherry.
Authorities across the affected states are urging residents to take precautions and stay informed about weather updates as the monsoon season continues.
First Piper 