IN FLOOD-RAVAGED UTTARAKHAND Search for life continues amid huge challenges

 

 

 

 

A BODY was recovered and over 150 people rescued from the flood-ravaged mountain village of Dharali on Wednesday as the search for the missing continued amid huge challenges, including incessant rain. Landslides blocked arterial roads leading up to Dharali where dozens of people were trapped and many homes and cars swept away by the raging waters on Tuesday. Eleven Army personnel from the nearby camp in Harsil were among those missing. The person whose body was retrieved was identified as that of 35-year-old Akash Panwar, the Uttarkashi Disaster Control Room said. Four people are suspected to have been killed in the disaster that struck the ecologically fragile area following what officials described as a cloudburst on Tuesday afternoon.

 

At least half of Dharali was buried under the fast-flowing mudslide of slush, rubble, and water. The village is the main stopover on the way to Gangotri, from where the Ganga originates, and is home to several hotels and home stays. A man told PTI Videos that he had not been able to contact his brother and his family since 2 pm yesterday. “There is my younger brother, his wife, and his son. We had a hotel and a house in Dharali. It all got swept away. I spoke to him last at 2 pm yesterday. I have been assured by the Chief Minister that a helicopter will be pressed into service to look for them tomorrow if weather permits,” he said.

 

According to Mohsen Shahedi, NDRF Deputy Inspector General (DIG) operations, three teams of the federal contingency force are en route to Dharali but have been unable to get there because continuous landslides have blocked the Rishikesh -Uttarkashi highway. Dharali is about 140 km from Dehradun and usually a five-hour drive. Two NDRF teams are to be airlifted from Dehradun, but they can’t be moved as bad weather is preventing a successful sortie, Shahedi told reporters in Delhi. Teams of the Army, ITBP, and SDRF are undertaking rescue operations in the affected area, and about 150 people have been rescued, he said. “We have been told that four people have been killed and about 50 are missing,” Shahedi said. Meanwhile, a 28-member group of tourists, natives of Kerala, who had gone missing, are safe now, family members said on Wednesday. A relative of a Kochi-based couple, who were part of the tour group, told reporters here that Defence sources informed them that all 28 tourists were safe.