Dehradun: Rescuers retrieved one body from the rubble in flood-ravaged Dharali village, as the search for the missing resumed on Wednesday, August 6, amid rain.
Uttarkashi villages were hit by flash floods triggered by a cloudburst the previous day. Nearly half of the picturesque Dharali village was ravaged.
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.
Four deaths have so far been confirmed in the flash flood, which followed a cloudburst. Around 150 people have been evacuated to safety, officials said.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami surveyed the flooded area in Dharali and Harsil from a helicopter.
“The rescue work is apace. Teams from the army, ITBP, and SDRF have reached the spot. Around 70-80 people have been rescued… Debris has reached an army base. A road has been blocked. The DM and an SP rank officer are on their way to the spot. It’s a challenging situation as it is still raining there,” he told PTI Videos.
Dhami said arrangements have been made for medicines and food, and 160 police personnel have been deployed, 10 of them senior and three SP-rank, to oversee the disbursement of ration. Three nodal officers have been appointed from the CM’s office.
11 army troops missing
Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Shrivastava informed the media that 11 army troops are reported missing. “Colonel Harshvardhan, Commanding Officer of 14 Raj Rif, is leading the relief and rescue operations with a 150-soldier team. Despite its soldiers going missing and its base being hit, the team is working with full courage and determination,” he said.
The Indian Army has kept its MI-17 and Chinook helicopters on standby to look for the stranded. They will take off only after the weather clears.
Deputy Inspector General (Operations) Mohsen Shahedi told reporters that three NDRF teams were en route to the Dharali village, but were delayed as the Rishikesh-Uttarkashi highway is blocked due to landslides.
“They will reach as soon as the route clears,” the DIG said.
NDRF deploys cadaver dogs
The NDRF’s first-ever team of cadaver dogs have been deployed to help locate those feared dead in the cloudburst incident in Uttarakhand.
The NDRF has trained about half a dozen cadaver dogs, primarily from the Belgian Malinois and Labrador breeds. For their training, the force procured a special scent from abroad that smells akin to the odour emitted by a dead body.
“For all these years, the NDRF focused on its mandate of saving lives. Utilising the golden hour of finding life during a disaster has been the guiding principle of the rescuers, and hence, finding the dead or mortal remains was not a priority,” a senior officer said.
ITBP rescues 413 pilgrims
Meanwhile, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police said they have rescued 413 pilgrims who were stranded along the Kinnaur Kailash Yatra route in the state. A large part of the trekking path was washed away, and the pilgrims were rescued through the rope-based traverse crossing technique, an ITBP spokesperson said.
In view of these adverse conditions, the Kinnaur Kailash Yatra is being temporarily suspended until further notice. The yatra began on July 15 and will conclude on August 30.
617 roads cut off, schools closed
Heavy rain also upended life in other parts of the state, leading to the closure of 617 roads, including four national highways, and educational institutions.
The State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said 617 roads, including four national highways, were cut off on Wednesday. Of these, 377 are in Mandi district, which was recently battered by cloudbursts, landslides and flash floods; and 90 are in Kullu district.
Chandigarh-Manali National Highway (NH 21), Old Hindustan-Tibet Road (NH 05), Mandi-Dharampur (NH 3) and Aut-Sainj road (NH 305) were closed for vehicular traffic following landslides. Shimla-Kalka National Highway, which was blocked at Chakki Mor near Koti in Solan district, has been opened for vehicular movement, the officials said.
Commuters faced a hard time as road closures led to traffic jams at several places.
Educational institutions, including schools, colleges and anganwadis, were closed in Sunni, Kumarsein, Chopal, Dodra Kwar, Jubbal, Theog and Rampur subdivisions of Shimla district, Karsog and Sundernagar in Mandi district, Nirmand in Kullu district, and some subdivisions in Solan district.
Several schools in Shimla city announced holidays or switched to online classes.
Ancient Shiva temple buried
The ancient Kalp Kedar temple was buried in the debris brought over by the flash flood in the Kheer Ganga river. The temple remained buried underground for many years, possibly due to a previous disaster, with only its tip visible over ground.
The temple was below the ground level and devotees had to go down to offer prayers in the temple. People say that some water from the Kheer Ganga would often drift onto the ‘shivling’ installed in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and a path had been created for it. There are stone carvings outside the temple.
Never seen such horrific scene in my 60 years of life: Local
Sixty-year-old Subhash Chandra Semwal, a resident of Mukhba village and an eyewitness, said that he had never seen such a horrific scene in his life.
He said that in the afternoon, he heard the sound of water and stones flowing at a high speed, following which he and other members of his family came out.
“When we saw a huge amount of water flowing down in Kheer Ganga, we all panicked. Then we blew whistles to alert the people living in Dharali market and shouted at them to run away from there,” he said.
With teary eyes, Semwal said that after hearing their voices, many people ran out of the hotel but the rushing flood waters overtook them and they were swept away.
Various videos on social media showed five to ten-metre high waves carrying tonnes of rubble and hitting a row of houses, hotels and other buildings which collapsed on people scampering to safety.
Many houses and hotels were completely swamped by debris due to the floods, while only the red and green tin roofs of some tall hotels were visible.
