New Delhi : Final toll could be over 10,000, those involved in rescue operations say

TNN

NEW DELHI, 25 June 2013 : The death toll in Uttarakhand’s flash floods could be far higher than all projected figures, if some volunteers and officials involved in rescue and relief operations are to be believed. Many of them are beginning to say that even the figure of 5,000 speculated by the state’s disaster management minister Yashpal Aryaon Sunday may not have captured the full extent of the disaster.

A senior official, overseeing a section of the relief and rescue operations in Uttarakashi-Kedarnath stretch, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the final toll is "anywhere between 10,000 to 15,000".

 

 

He said his teams are reporting hundreds of bodies in various locations. His team is carrying out rescue and relief operations in some of the remotest parts of the state where flash floods have struck. The fact that about 50 bodies washed up in Haridwar is a clear indication that hundreds of them are in the river itself, he said.

Vishnu, a local youth trained in mountaineering and who is part of a rescue team which operates in Uttarkashi-Gaurikund stretch, said he must have seen "anywhere between 1,000 to 2, 000 bodies" since he joined rescue and relief operations on June 19. His team was primarily involved in helping people move across an area where 1.5 km of road had been washed away.

"We saw bodies hanging on trees, of people who had slipped while climbing a steep mountain to get to the other side," he said. To negotiate the 1.5 km of missing road, people had to climb the mountain and walk for almost 10 km. "In the initial hours after the floods, many slipped off those mountains and fell to their death," Vishnu said.

Reports are very similar from other parts of the region. Rajeev Chauhan, a local volunteer operating in Gaurikund area, said locals have reported seeing around 1,000 bodies in and around Kedarnath. "The military and ITBP are focussed on rescuing those who are alive. Nobody has a count for the dead," he said. And many of these dead are beyond the townships, he added.

Former Uttarakhand chief minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari told TOI that he fears that the toll would be in "several thousands, I am talking about may be 6,000 to 10,000". He said he has seen around 500 bodies in the last few days that he had been moving around. He said a large number of people are stranded in jungles and remote upper reaches. "We don’t even know how many are there, and how many of them are alive," Koshiyari said.