Despite the major calamity witnessed by Uttarakhand, the four religious shrines of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Hemkunt Saheb will be open to the public from September 15.
NDMA member V.K. Duggal who is presently overseeing the relief and rescue operations in Uttarakhand expressed confidence that road connectivity to Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines along with Hemkunt Saheb would open by mid-September but the approach to Kedarnath continued to pose a problem.
“Although road link between Gaurikund to Guptkashi has been established, we are looking at alternative routes so that clearance of debris can effectively take place from September 15 onwards,” said Mr Duggal who expected the prayers in Kedarnath to start by September 11.
“We expect to provide proper accommodation to the pujaris along with their 8 to 10 helpers,” he added.
The main obstacle that continues to hamper relief and reconstruction work has been the inclement weather and persistent landslides.
NDMA vice-chairman Shashidhar Reddy believes that one of the major lessons learnt from this calamity has been the need to regulate the number of pilgrims going up to these shrines. “We need to understand the holding capacity of these shrines in order to prevent disasters in the future,” said Mr Reddy.
A national workshop on the Uttarakhand disaster organised by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) highlighted that over 1.2 lakh people rescued in these flash floods which witnessed cloud bursts across several river basins including the Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Yamuna, Asiganga and the Mandakini. Parts of HP, western Nepal and western Tibet also experience heavy rain with 91 Nepali citizens also reported dead in this tragedy.
The NDMA believes the possible causes of this unprecedented phenomena was either because of collision of Western disturbances with the monsoon easterlies. This heavy precipitation on three continuous days above tree line resulting in runoff of debris, moraine and boulders from 13,000 ft to 6,500 ft in 6 km distance and also because of cloudbursts in several river basins.