(Feature Image: Search Operation on Aug 07, 2025 in Katola gaad of Bankura village in Chauthan Patti, Thaisain, Pauri. Source: Uttarakhand Police)
The Chauthan Patti under Thailisain block of Pauri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand has again been battered by excessive rainfall events on August 06 2025. Villagers have reported of 3 incidents of ‘cloudburst’ induced flashflood causing severe damages in Bankura, Mansari and Sarson villages.
1 Bankura Flashflood: In most tragic flash flood incident at least 5 workers were washed away and 4 other workers were injured in Bankura village area around 09:15 am in the morning. The Nepal origin workers were engaged by a contractor in Bungidhar-Jagatpuri-Deghat road maintenance project. This road is currently under Bridge, Ropeway, Tunnel and other Infrastructure Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (BRIDCUL).
About 40 workers mostly from Bardiya and Banke districts of Nepal were staying in temporary tarpaulin tents set up in farmlands along the affected stream named Katola gaad of the village when the deluge washed away their tents. An 18 month old child, two women and a teenage boy are among the missing workers. One of the missing women was reportedly pregnant.
As per the villagers they got no time to escape. The villagers tried entire day but could not recover their bodies. They feared their bodies could have been washed away in Binnu stream, a tributary of Ramganga river. A dumper parked on the road was also swept away in the deluge.
The washed away workers included Narendar Khatka (40 year), his wife Sandhya Khatka (35 year), son Roman Khatka (18 month), Amrita Pariyar (35), Subhash Bika (21). Among 5 other affected, two workers Kaligram (23) and Laxmi Pariyar (21) have suffered serious injuries and were sent to Govt Hospital in Deghat, Almora while 2 with minor injuries Gopal (19) and Uday Gurang (21) have been given primary treatment.
A 6 member SDRF team from Dhumakot along with some policemen and officials from Thailisain the Bungidhar PWD rest house late in the evening. The team could not reach earlier as Dhumakot is about 90km away from Chauthan Patti and they faced road blockage at half a dozen site.
The search operation began in the morning hour of Aug 7. The SDRF team along with the workers surveyed about 10 km stretch of the Binnu river but did not found bodies of missing workers till evening. Some parts of washed away dumper were seen about 600 meters downstream in Binnu river. The search operation has entered second day. So far, there is no official statement on the final status of missing workers and whether the kins of the deceased and injured workers will be given any compensation from the government.
The Bankura village has itself been hit hard by the disaster. Nearly, half of the houses in village are facing crumbling protection walls and collapsing courtyards. Villagers feel the huge land sinking happening there may result in severe damage to their homes and lives in coming time. The flood has washed away a foot bridge on Panyar roul (stream) and water supply lines to the villager. Presently, the villagers are now dependent on distant sources for drinking water lying across the affected Katola gaad.
2 Sarson Flashflood: The second flash flood incident has been reported from Sarson village area. It happened around 09:00 am. The village is located about 8 km away from Bankura in initial catchment of Binnu stream. Villagers have termed it a ‘cloudburst’ event. In this incident too about 25 Nepal origin workers were affected by the flashflood in Kulser gaad. The workers were involved in construction of protection and drainage work of recently built Sarson-Jandriya road.
However, the timely alert by the villagers about the ensuing deluge prevented another tragedy in the region. As a result, several workers managed to run to their safety. However, 6 of the workers were trapped in the flash flood and got injured severely. By the late evening all the injured workers were sent to Thailisain tehsil hospital from where two severely injured were referred to a charitable hospital in Satpuli. The full details of injured workers are not available as yet.
Additionally, the land sinking and land slips following excessive rains have made several homes and shops vulnerable to collapse along with Mason road. As a precaution, several families have shifted to safer places. Locals have reported of partial damage to several homes, cowsheds in Jandriya, Sarson, Mason and other villages.
3 Mansari Flash Flood: A similar ‘cloudburst’ induced flashflood has been reported from Mansari village in morning hours around same time. The village lies uphill between Bankura and Sarson villages. The deluge in the local Shilpakh gadera has damaged several farmlands and washed away a foot bridge. The heavy rainfall spell has also affected homes, cowsheds, pathways and motor roads in adjoining Kandai, Pokhari and Chamali villages. No human casualty or injury is reported in this incident.
Risking Human Lives: This is possibly the first time that the Chauthan region has witnessed death of 5 migrant workers and injuries to a dozen other workers in the flash flood disaster. Clearly, in both the cases of Bankura and Sarson the ignorance of local administration has endangered the lives of humans. They were allowed to settle along the streams vulnerable to flashflood. Sadly, none of the concerned agencies including BRIDCUL, local administration and contractors has been monitoring and restricted these activities during monsoon to avoid such disasters.
One expects the concerned departments to draw lessons from these events and strictly prohibit temporary and permanent settlements along streams to avoid such disasters in future.
Overall Impact: Chauthan Patti is remotest region of Pauri Garhwal comprised of about 72 villages. Geographically, it is located in buffer zone of Dudhatoli Reserve Forest sharing its border with Chamoli and Almora districts of Uttarakhand.
The intense rain spell lasting for about three hours between 07:30 am to 10:30 am on Aug 6 following intermitted rains throughout preceding night has severely affected the normal life in region. Full and partial damage to homes, cowsheds, pathways, farmlands, crops, footbridges, roads have been reported from over a dozen of villages including Jainti, Mangru, Kandai, Matholi, Pokhari, Mansari, Pipalkot, Kimwadi, Devradi, Mason, Sarson, Jandriya, Maikholi, Bhaidgaon, Bharnon, Syunsaal, Than, Chounda, Pajyana.
Presently, the large part of the region is disconnected from the District Headquarter as bridges at two locations on Thailisain-Bungidhar road have been washed away. The road has developed wide cracks at many locations. The State Highway 55, namely Ufrenkhal-Jagatpuri-Thailisain is blocked at multiple locations by landslides and uprooted trees. The electricity poles and lines have been damaged at several village in the area are without power supply since morning of Aug 6.
Absence Post Disaster Restoration & Rehabilitation The affected villagers are totally disappointed by the post disaster management work by the administration. So far, the local administration has not been able to survey the affected villages. Hence there is no official information available on actual extent and scale of impacts even after three days of the disaster.
Dhan Singh Rawat, the local MLA visited the Bankura on Aug 08 morning for few hours and left promising agitated locals about conducting village level survey by Patwaris soon. Presently, out of four Patwaris appointed in the area, three are undergoing some training session and only on Patwari in-charge from Thailisain is appointed to visit the affected villages.
On the top of it, barring a few most of the recently elected village and block representatives have moved to undisclosed location for the election of District Panyayat President. In such situation, with hardly any medium available to voice their grievances, villagers feel marooned by all concerned to suffer in the disaster aftermath.
Last year on July 31 too, several villages were affected by ‘cloudburst’ induced flashflood disaster the region damaging dozens of homes, cowsheds, two road bridges and washing away over 10 foot-bridges, 3 water mills, scores of farmlands in Dang, Daida, Kimwadi, Syunsaal villages.
It has been over a year but the damaged infrastructure is yet to be restored. Against damages to homes and farmlands the administration distributed a meagre compensation. The affected villagers again fear that their losses would not be compensated adequately and restoration work may take over a year.
‘Cloudburst’ Unsolved Puzzle: In absence of any rainfall measuring equipment across the Chauthan Patti by the meteorological department, Dehradun, these excessive rainfall events are often happening unmonitored.
This time too, the nearest manual rain gauge set up in Thailisain block about 50 km away from Bungidhar, the central part of Chauthan Patti has only reported 50mm rainfall in 24 hours from 08:30 am on 06.08.2025 to 08:30 am on 07.08.2025.
There have been several such incidents in the region in recent past which the local administration has reported as ‘cloudburst’ based on field visits and details of damages as shared by local people. Three reports by SANDRP on the subject from the region can be seen here Aug 2021, Sept 2021, June 2019.
SANDRP has been emphasizing on increasing rainfall monitoring stations in the region and in other parts of Uttarakhand to study these events and prepare disaster mitigation plan accordingly. In absence of required monitoring networks these flash flood events can neither be termed nor ruled out as ‘cloudburst’.
SANDRP
SANDRP 