By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The schools in Dehradun, Chamoli and Bageshwar districts were closed on Thursday as torrential rains continued to lash Uttarakhand with Ganga and its major tributaries — Mandakini, Alaknanda and Yamuna rising menacingly prompting the authorities to issue an alert.
Mandakini and Alaknanda, two key tributaries of Ganga, were rising above danger level at Rudraprayag, Devprayag and several other places, the Central Water Commission said. The water level in these rivers was rising in the morning, it said.
The public announcements asking people not to venture near swollen rivers were being made at Rishikesh, Rudraprayag and several other places.
Nearly 39,000 cusecs of flood waters from swollen Asan Barrage were being released into Yamuna in the morning that may likely to raise the river level in Delhi and other places.
Earlier, the IMD issued orange alert of heavy rains in three districts – Dehrdun, Chamoli and Bageshwar and said the weather would remain wet till Aug 11 in Uttarakhand, Himachal and Jammu and Kashmir.
“Heavy to very heavy rain likely to occur at isolated places in Dehradun, Chamoli and Bageshwar districts of Uttarakhand,” the IMD said.
After the orange alert, Dehradun, Chamoli and Bageshwar district authorities promptly declared holidays for all schools.
Thunderstorm accompanied with lightning and very intense to extremely intense spell of rain likely to occur at isolated places in Dehradun, Chamoli and Bageshwar districts of Uttarakhand, it said adding heavy Rain likely to occur at isolated places in Tehri, Uttarkashi, Pauri, Pithoragarh, Champawat, Nainital and Rudraprayag districts of Uttarakhand.
Thunderstorm accompanied with lightning likely to occur at isolated places in Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts.
Fairly Widespread to Widespread rainfall likely over Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh-Gil gitBaltistan-Muzaffarabad and Uttarakhand during 5th-11th August, the IMD said.
Caption: Swollen Mandakini at Rudraprayag on Thursday morning. The river was flowing above danger level.