The weather department has raised the ‘orange’ alert to ‘red’ for isolated spells of extremely heavy rainfall in the districts of Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Una, Hamirpur, and Bilaspur for 8th July and 9th July. IMD has also warned of localised flooding and landslides in Himachal Pradesh. It added that isolated spells of very heavy rainfall are likely in districts Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan, while there could be isolated spells of heavy rain in Lahaul and Spiti.
 
Our correspondent reports that as Monsoon continues being active over  Himachal Pradesh, there has been widespread rainfall since last night in many places of the state including the capital Shimla. Several landslides have been reported at many places and the water level of rivers and drains has increased. In Solan district at Dochi in Kasauli constituency, three under-construction buildings were damaged on 8th July 2023, Saturday due to a landslide; while heavy rains have resulted in water-logging in the heritage market of tourist town Kasauli. Following various landslide instances at different places on Fourlane in the district, the administration has appealed to the people to take precautions while traveling. Normal life has been affected due to widespread rains in other places of the state. The Kullu district administration has issued an advisory regarding the Shrikhand Mahadev Yatra that started yesterday due to incessant rains and appealed to the devotees not to travel in inclement weather and stay at safer places. On the other hand, in the Lahaul-Spiti district, the Tandi-Sansari drain road has been closed due to floods in the Madgran drain, due to which the road connectivity of many villages has been cut off. The Meteorological Department has issued an alert for heavy rainfall at many places in the state till 9th July. Alerting heavy rain, the State Disaster Management Authority has advised people to take precautions and appealed to stay away from rivers and drains and avoid going to high altitude areas.