Parts of north India under water as heavy rains lash several states

Rains lashed Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for the fourth consecutive day yesterday, as the toll from the heavy downpour reached 58 and left 73,000 people wet and miserable after they got stranded.

According to the projections of the meteorological department more rains may be expected in the next two days in northern India.

Officials continued with the rescue operations in rain-hit areas as the toll in the two states rose to 58 and as 40 perished in the torrential downpour in Uttarakhand, 18 people died in UP's Saharanpur district.

According to sources, over 58,000 people are stranded at different places on the route of the Chardham Yatra - Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath.

According to officials, the onward trip to Hemkunt Saheb, the sacred pilgrimage for Sikhs had also been abandoned for now.

Even as the gushing rivers washed away roads and caused land slides, flood waters entered several villages on banks of the Alaknanda river.

The army is assisting in the rescue operations in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur district where 10 people were killed in landslides and house collapses.

All road connections to Kinnaur, on the border with China's Tibet region, have been blocked by landslides with over 1,700 people including 25 foreign tourists stranded.

Parts of Haryana state have also been flooded due to the arrival of heavy rains from the annual monsoon which arrived almost a fortnight ahead of its usual date.

The monsoon in India usually lasts from June to September.