Kangra (Himachal Pradesh), Sep 9 (IANS) Moved by the plight and overloaded with feelings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met 11-month-old Neetika, the lone survivor of her family in the Himachal floods, and softly tapped her face. The child looked back with innocence, unaware of the weight of loss she carried -- her parents and grandmother never returned the night the raging waters came. Neetika had been fast asleep in her cradle when the deluge struck their home in July. Her parents and grandmother had stepped out to battle the flood but never made it back. Only the baby remained -- untouched, as if the fury had paused at her bedside. Now in the care of relatives, Neetika has become more than a survivor.

She is a symbol of both devastation and hope -- the child the floods could not take, and the face of a tragedy numbers alone cannot tell. Prime Minister Modi came to Himachal Pradesh and met Neetika, whose aunt was offered sweets by the Prime Minister amidst the presence of Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu and Leader of Opposition Jairam Thakur, besides survivors of several natural calamities reported in the state from July onwards. The little girl, now in the care of relatives, is the only surviving member of her family after the July disaster that ravaged the hill state, leaving hundreds of families homeless and tourists stranded.

Her presence, fragile yet unbroken, has come to symbolise both the devastation and the miracle of survival. For Himachal Pradesh, she’s the face of a tragedy that statistics cannot capture. She had a miraculous escape on the intervening night of June 30 and July 1, when a flash flood triggered by a cloudburst struck Talwara village in Gohar sub-division in Mandi district. Prime Minister Modi visited flood-affected regions of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to review the ongoing disaster response and rehabilitation efforts following severe monsoon-triggered floods and landslides that have wreaked havoc across northern India.

After meeting survivors and state government functionaries, led by Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, who gave a detailed presentation about the situation of monsoon fury that left a trail of widespread destruction. Official data says 136 landslides, 95 flash floods and 45 cloudbursts have caused large-scale damage to both public infrastructure and private property since the start of the monsoons on June 20. Currently, 615 roads are closed, including four national highways, while 1,748 electricity transformers and 461 water schemes were impacted. Besides flood-affected people, the Prime Minister also interacted with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the SDRF and the Aapda Mitra team at the Gaggal airport, near Kangra town.

“Undertook an aerial survey to assess the situation in the wake of flooding and landslides in Himachal Pradesh. We stand firmly with the people in this difficult time and all efforts are being made to ensure continuous support to those affected,” the Prime Minister wrote on X. The youngest survivor, Neetika, whose parents, Ramesh Kumar, 31, and Radha Devi, 24, along with her grandmother Poonam Devi, 59, were struck by a landslide and swept all three away. The body of her father was found close to the house, but her mother and grandmother remain untraceable.

A photo of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Samritika Negi holding Neetika in her arms has gone viral, capturing hearts across India. The child is currently being raised by her aunt Kirna Devi, who resides in the same village where the disaster struck. She brought the child for meeting with the Prime Minister. Neetika has been declared a “child of the state”, meaning the government has pledged full support for her upbringing, education and professional studies. An official privy to the development told IANS that at the Gaggal airport, the Prime Minister met 21 survivors of landslides and flash floods. Before reaching the airport, PM Modi did an aerial survey of Mandi, Kullu and Chamba, the state’s worst-affected districts.

The youngest survivor belongs to the Seraj Assembly constituency of BJP leader Jairam Thakur, who played a crucial role in facilitating the Prime Minister’s Office to compile the list of survivors. The other survivors who met the Prime Minister include Mukesh from Thunag village in Mandi district, who lost the entire family members comprising parents, wife and a child. The other survivors are Inder Singh from Nachan and Krishna from Mandi town. While the former lost wife and three daughters in a landslide, and the latter lost two sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson. Just ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to the state, a massive landslide occurred in Sharmani village in Kullu’s Nirmand, claiming one life and three were rescued.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu said the state has suffered a loss of over Rs 4,500 crore, with the maximum damage to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) highways. Also, state roads have been badly impacted. Terrifying visuals of landslides sweeping away several multi-storey buildings and hundreds of people being evacuated and rescuers searching for people feared missing in the northern Himalayan state were common in the July, August and September calamity, which claimed 371 deaths, 41 missing and extensive infrastructure damage across the state.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)