Uttarakhand victims waiting for relief since 4 days, bodies lying unattended, death toll in thousands

Rishikesh/Dehradun/Joshimath, Jun 20: Thousands of pilgrims and locals in the flood-hit ares of Uttarakhand have been waiting for food and relief for the last four days, giving a lie to government's claims about distributing relief. Many of the victims told India TV reporters that not a single administration official has reached them so far, leave alone providing relief. Hundreds of victims in Sonprayag, Guptakashi, Gaurikund and Fata told India TV reporters that they have not had a single grain of food for the last four days.Three to four thousand pilgrims are stranded right now at Gangotri Dham. They do not have any access to food and medicines. Eyewitnesses said, dead bodies are lying around unattended in Kedar Ghati for the last three days after the flood water receded leaving behind trail of mud and destruction. The situation has turned grim with over 62,000 pilgrims stranded at different places of Uttarakhand. Nilesh Anand Bharne, SP, Rudraprayag said on Thursday that several thousand people are still stranded in Gaurkind, Gaurigaon and other places. He claimed that food packets were being distributed. The 8th century Kedarnath shrine is persently convered under six feet of slude. The temple, its surroundings and the 18-kilometre trek to the 3,581 metre high sacred shrine have been devastated by landslides and flash flood.There were no reliable estimates on the number of pilgrims,but some accounts said bodies were strewn in and around the temple complex and 15,000 people were still waiting to be rescued,of them 12,000 in the temple.More than 60 villages near Kedarnath have been completely flattened. Nearly 90 dharamshalas and hotels, including those of Bharat Sevashram, Kali Kamli and a Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam hotel has been completely destroyed. Sohan Singh Negi of Kedarnath village said: "I saw over 60 bodies being swept away in the flash flood, and about 200 people, whom I personally know are missing".Negi said, an estimated 25,000 people including pilgrims, sadhus and residents, are still trapped in areas, wher the Army and ITBP rescuers are yet to reach.More than 1,000 people are still missing from Kedarnath town, Garhwal divisional commissioner Suvardhan said.He said officials have not yet even started counting the casualties from nearby towns like Guptkashi, Kund and Agastya Muni.There is also no news about the 100 priests at the Kedarnath temple and more than 1,000 traders at Ram Bada town along the pilgrim path.The entire scale of destruction is yet to be assessed fully. With many villages swept off by flash floods, the rescue and relief operations by the Army and other agencies appear to be inadequate. People in Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi are clamouring for food and drinking water.Many of the pilgrims are stranded in hilly forests on the 17-km route from Sonprayag to Kedarnath. Several of them have saved their lives by being stranded on a small island in Sonprayag.On the Gangotri highway, more than 4,000 pilgrims are on the verge of starvation. After food went out of stock from the dhabas in Gangnani, Sunagar and Dabrani, the pilgrims went to nearby villages. The villagers initially offered them food, but when they themselves went out of stock, the pilgrims had to go to the forests, where villagers showed them wild vegetables in order to sustain.PTI adds: The Himalayan tragedy continued to unfold today with fears that thousands of pilgrims staying in 90 rest houses in Uttarakhand may have been washed away in flash floods even as rescue operations were today stepped up with additional IAF choppers pressed into service to evacuate stranded people in Kedarnath area.In its report to the Union Home Ministry, the Uttarakhand State Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre has said that casualties in the affected areas may run into thousands with about 90 ‘dharamashalas' (rest houses for pilgrims) swept away in the flash floods.However, the toll has been kept officially at 150.With the weather clearing up, the focus was on rescue operations both in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where two IAF and one state chopper was making sorties to rescue 600 stranded tourists.In Uttarakhand, over 15,000 people stranded in Kedarnath and Govindghat on way to Hemkund Sahib have been evacuated so far to Joshimath relief camps through air and road routes, IG police R S Meena told PTI.“Apart from the 12 helicopters already engaged in rescue operations in affected areas, eight more have been roped in for the purpose to step up the process,” Meena said.Rescue efforts are being concentrated as of now on Kedarnath shrine and its adjoining areas in Rudraprayag district which has been the worst hit with about 90 dharamshalas in the temple area, where pilgrims were staying having been swept away by the flood waters, he said.Two helicopters have flown from Dehradun to evacuate stranded people.The Army has also deployed its mountain rescue teams to evacuate the pilgrims.Scores of villages remain under water and cannot be tracked.Hence there is uncertainty about the casualties caused, he said, adding the “devastation is massive”.Rescue efforts also picked up in rain-battered tribal Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh with two IAF and one state chopper making sorties to rescue 600 tourists and others stranded in remote areas.The sorties started at 6.30 AM in the morning and people stranded at various places for past five days are being dropped at Rampur, official sources said.In all, 278 people were evacuated till yesterday evening and about 600 tourist and other people were still stranded at various places. Utarakhand DGP Satyavrat Bansal told PTI that though rescue work was slightly hampered in the morning due to bad weather in the affected areas, 5000 stranded pilgrims have been brought from Guptkashi to Dehradun.When asked about the toll, he did not rule out the possibility of a huge number of people being killed but said it is difficult to quantify a figure as rescue operations are still on and many areas are still submerged.“We are not looking into that (extent of toll). Our priority right now is to evacuate people stranded in high altitudes to safe locations,” the DGP said.Describing the ordeal of Kedarnath pilgrims, Chaubey said, he alongwith his wife and children spent three nights in the midst of dead bodies and debris. "On the night of June 16, I myself rang up the DM of Rudraprayag, the Bihar government and the Home Ministry officials, but nobody took our call for help seriously. There were 700 to 800 people inside the temple where we were staying. We had no food or water for 3 days and nights. I have never experienced such an ordeal in my life", said Chaubey. "On the morning of June 17, big boulders came crashing into our temple destroying everything in its wake. We somehow managed to swim through the flood and saved ourselves. There were a large number of dead bodies inside the temple", the former Bihar minister said.