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Water from two Himachal dams was discharged on day of Beas flash flood tragedy

Published: 16:50 EST, 13 June 2014 | Updated: 16:50 EST, 13 June 2014

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In a new twist in the Himachal Pradesh tragedy in which 25 people were swept away, it has come to light that water from two dams - and not only from the Larji dam as earlier believed - was discharged into Beas river.

This came even as rescue teams failed to locate any of the 17 people still missing in the Beas flash flood on June 8.

Among the missing are 13 students and a tour manager.

Twenty-five people went missing and bodies of eight have been retrieved so far.

Authorities had not only discharged water into Beas from Larji dam but also from the dam of Parvati Power Project.

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"The water from Parvati Project was released first. This dam is located about 60 km from Larji dam, which was already full when water from the Parvati Project was discharged," a Himachal Pradesh government official said.

The government on Friday said that a special operation will be launched to trace the missing people.

"A special search operation would be launched tomorrow (on Saturday) to trace the missing students of Thalot tragedy by lowering water to the lowest possible level," State rural development minister Anil Sharma said on Friday as he oversaw the rescue operations.