Mandi cloudburst: Family dead or missing; 10 month old baby might be the lone survivor | India News

Ten-month-old Neetika is believed to be the only surviving member of her family after a devastating cloudburst struck Talwara village in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district earlier this week.Her father, 31-year-old Ramesh Kumar, had stepped out to divert floodwater from their home when the cloudburst hit on Tuesday. His body was later recovered from the debris.Neetika’s mother, Radha Devi (24), and grandmother, Purnu Devi (59), had gone out searching for Ramesh and remain missing. Search operations are still underway.It was a neighbour, Prem Singh, who found the baby crying alone in the rubble. He rushed her to Ramesh’s cousin, Balwant, who works as a personal security officer for former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur.“The baby is with us,” Balwant told PTI, adding that local authorities were stepping in to help. The sub-divisional magistrate had also promised to open a bank account in her name by tomorrow.“She (the SDM) said that a lot of calls are streaming in and people are coming forward to help the child after they heard about the tragedy,”Talwara is among several villages badly affected by the cloudburst, including Pawara, Thunag, Baidshad, Kanda, and Murad. Roads, water lines and power infrastructure have suffered extensive damage across the region.So far, 14 people have died in ten separate incidents of cloudbursts, flash floods, and landslides across Mandi district, officials said. Rescue teams are still searching for 31 missing individuals.Balwant recalled that Ramesh had also lost his father as an infant. A small-scale farmer, Ramesh relied heavily on the income of his mother, Purnu Devi, who worked as a peon at a government school and was due to retire in seven months.Local authorities have given Neetika’s relatives Rs 25,000 as immediate assistance for her care.