The single piece of good news amid the widespread devastation in the rain-battered state of Uttarakhand on Wednesday was that the revered shrine of Kedarnath, built by Adi Sankara over a thousand years ago, is safe.
Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna admitted that there was a lot of debris around the 3,584-metre-high shrine near Chorabari glacier that will have to be cleared. The shrine, he added, will remain out of bounds for pilgrims for one year. The CM was speaking to reporters after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who undertook an aerial survey of the region.
Survivors returning from this disaster zone claim that most government buildings, hotels and shops around the temple have been destroyed. The fate of 13,000 people at Kedarnath is still uncertain as only around 1,000 people have been evacuated from there so far.
The Army is constructing a makeshift helipad at Kedarnath so that Mi-17 helicopters can land to help speed up relief efforts. Uttarakhand’s official death toll crossed 200 on Wednesday, with over 60,000 pilgrims reportedly still stranded in Uttarakashi, Srinagar, Joshimath and Rudraprayag. The defence authorities said over 2,800 people remained stranded in Harsil-Gangotri, around 5,500 in the Kedarnath valley, 2,500 in Hemkund and around 15,000 in the Badrinath axis.
With 380 mm of rainfall, 450 per cent more than normal, aerial surveys confirm fears of widespread devastation. Rudraprayag district magistrate V.K. Dhaudhiyal said he feared the death toll in Kedarnath could be very high as all buildings there, including in the Ram Bada area, were now a heap of debris.
Army engineers and ITBP personnel managed to rescue 4,000 pilgrims stranded at Govindghat. Those rescued complained that the authorities had not given any early warnings, nor helped with food or medical assistance. With most roads washed away, Rudraprayag SDM L.N. Mishra, who is overseeing rescue operations at Agastya Muni, warned there could be a full-fledged food crisis if thousands of people stranded there were not evacuated in the next two days.
Fears of an epidemic also loom large with hundreds of bodies trapped in the debris. The National Disaster Management Authority has rushed a team of doctors to the affected areas.
The external affairs ministry, meanwhile, has cancelled batches 2 to 10 of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra as torrential rains and floods in Uttarakhand had badly damaged the route. The road between Almora and the roadhead at Tawaghat has been washed away at several places, and some major bridges have also been damaged.
Walking trails beyond Tawaghat have also suffered badly due to landslides at several places.
Eighteen batches, each with a maximum of 60 yatris, had been selected for this year’s yatra, held from June 9 to September 9.
After his aerial survey with Mrs Gandhi, the Prime Minister said: “What the UPA chairperson and I saw today was most distressing.” He told reporters: “I have decided to provide an amount of `1,000 crores to Uttarakhand for disaster relief, of which `145 crores is being released immediately.”
The Army launched “Operation Surya Hope” on Wednesday as part of its humanitarian assistance in the flood-ravaged areas. It has so far rescued around 5,800 people. The top brass of the Army’s Lucknow-based Central Command is camping in the upper reaches of flood-devastated Uttarakhand to coordinate relief efforts.
The Indian Air Force has deployed 18 helicopters. On Wednesday it also deployed one of its modern C-130-J Hercules transport aircraft for reconnaissance. Defence sources said the Border Roads Organisation had been roped in to clear roads that had been badly damaged. These include the Rishikesh-Joshimath-Mana road, the Rudraprayag-Gaurikund road, Jauljibi-Munsiyari road, Pithoraghat-Tawaghat road, Wangthu-Pooh road and the Pooh-Kaurik road.
The Army, after reconnaissance of the area, is organising air evacuation on the Govindghat-Badrinath road, apart from mounting a huge rescue operation at Sonprayag and Kedarnath. Troops are being stationed every 2 km along these roads to rescue people in isolated clusters.
Defence sources said the IAF was facing a problem in landing helicopters due to the widespread devastation. It has deployed 18 helicopters and a transport plane for relief and rescue operations, and with the weather having improved, minister of state for home R.P.N. Singh said around 3,000 people had already been evacuated.