Rain toll rises to 131, over 73,000 pilgrims stranded

TNN

DEHRADUN/SHIMLA:June 19 :  Torrential rains continued to pour in bad news from north India on Tuesday, with flash floods, cloudbursts and landslips claiming 69 more lives and taking the official death toll to 131, making for the most tragic tidings of monsoon in recent years. More than 73,000 pilgrims bound for the Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri remained stranded in Uttarakhandand about 1,700 tourists were stuck in Himachal Pradesh.

 

 

The rains left 102 people dead in Uttarakhand, almost as many injured, and smashed hundreds of houses. The remaining deaths were reported from Himachal Pradesh.

Based on reports from volunteers on the pilgrim route, the VHP said the toll could be in thousands. Its statement said bodies were strewn around the Kedarnath temple and Gauri Kund, from where the trek to Kedarnath commences, had been washed away.

The worst-hit was Rudraprayag where 20 people drowned and 73 buildings, including 40 hotels along the banks of Alaknanda, were swept away by the swirling waters of the ice-cold river.

Police said seven members of a family, including two minors, died after the hotel they were staying was consumed by the river.

Char Dham pilgrims, thousands of them from Delhi and surrounding areas, are still stranded due to extensive damage to roads in Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi. Disaster management authorities said more than 27,000 devotees are stuck in Chamoli; 25,000-odd in Rudraprayag; and close to 10,000 in Uttarkashi. Around 10,000 people stuck are travelers and other tourists.

While security forces were pressed in rescue operations, even some of them have fallen victim to the flood’s ferocity. Bodies of three Indo-Tibetan Border Police jawans and two police constables were recovered from the debris at Kedarnath, official sources said. Two IAF helicopters and two private choppers flew sorties in Chamoli district, which is badly hit. Private choppers have been dropping food supplies to people stuck in Pulna and Bundar villages en route to Hemkunt Sahib.

Two IAF copters ferried hundreds of pilgrims from Kedarnath to Fata helipad in Rudraprayag. "Chopper services were launched on a war footing with no fresh spell of rain in the morning at most places in Uttarakhand," said SDM, Rudraprayag, L N Mishra.