President Mohamed Nasheed is deeply saddened to hear about the rise in the death toll due to heavy rainfall that triggered flash floods and landslides in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand this past week.

On this occasion, he emphasises on the importance of a well-established disaster risk management system and wishes success for all the rescue efforts conducted by the Indian authorities.

President Nasheed also expresses solidarity with the victims’ families and hopes the people of India would be able to overcome this natural catastrophe as soon as possible.