September 22, 2008	Monday	Ramazan 21, 1429

SHIMLA, Sept 21: The death toll due to heavy rains and flooding over the weekend across India has gone up to 63 with the air force rescuing a Tibetan spiritual leader, officials said on Sunday.

Most of the casualties were reported from the northern tourist state of Himachal Pradesh with the state government saying 46 people were killed in rain-related accidents.

In eastern Orissa, 17 people were washed away and 2.4 million people left homeless after four rivers burst their banks and flooded villages, senior official Ajit Kumar Tripathy said on Sunday in state capital Bhubaneswar.

Heavy monsoon rains felled trees and severed power lines in Himachal Pradesh, blocking roads and bridges and cutting off electricity to houses, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said.

Indian air force helicopters, dropping food, medicines and supplies to affected people, also ferried the Karmapa Lama, who heads the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, to safety, Dhumal said.

The Karmapa Lama -- Ugyen Trinley Dorje -- ranks only behind the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama in the Tibetan spiritual hierachy.

Another helicopter dropped food and other essentials to 45 trekkers including 25 foreigners stranded in the high altitude Lahaul valley, he added.

Sudha Devi, a senior Himachal administration official, said at least 150 tourists had been evacuated from the snow-covered 13,050 feet high Rohtang Pass on Sunday.

Further east in Orissa, about 266,000 people have been evacuated to safer places after heavy downpours and water overflowing from brimming dams inundated large parts of the state, Tripathy said.

“According to initial reports, 1,849 villages in coastal Orissa are under water,” he said.

Indian Air Force helicopters dropped food packets to people in the worst affected districts of Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara, he added.

Officials said many of the 17 deaths in the state were caused by the collapse of flimsy homes.—AFP