Incessant rains disrupt normalcy in The Nilgiris

Several people were left injured after being trapped under falling trees. Three members of a family were injured after a huge tree fell on their house at VC Colony in Udhagamandalam in the early hours of Monday.

The injured, identified as Mathialagan (48) and his two sons Prasanth (23) and Sanjay (18), were fast asleep, when the tree came crashing down.

On receiving information, a joint rescue team from forest department and revenue department removed the fallen tree and brought the three men out of the ill-fated house. They were rushed to a hospital for treatment. Trees also fell on multiple spots on Udhagamandalam-Gudalur road and caused traffic disruptions for a while. At least six trees were uprooted on this arterial stretch and were cleared on a war footing by the rescue team.

Also, several residential areas in Udhagamandalam town and neighbouring localities were drowned in darkness over the last few days due owing to continuous power outage following uprooting of electric posts due to heavy winds that accompanied rains. As predicted by the meteorological department, rains continued to pound parts of the district with the most affected being Devala, Pandalur, Avalanche, Emerald and Upper Bhavani.

Nilgiris District Collector, J. Innocent Divya asked people to call the district’s helpline-1077 for any emergency. “45 teams were ready to pitch in to help the people. The public should stay alert and shouldn’t come out of their houses unnecessarily,” she said.

The district has received an average of 26.26 millimetres of rain over a 24 hour period till Monday morning