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Rescuers in the flood-hit Uttarakhand state worked yesterday to free more than 500 people stranded in the town of Badrinath as efforts elsewhere turned to supplying cut-off villages and recovering bodies. |
Flash floods and landslides in the mountainous northern state that began two weeks ago have left at least 800 people confirmed dead and an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 missing.
Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal told reporters the death toll could exceed 10,000.
“More than 1,000 reports have been filed with the police about missing persons so far,” said Puja Rawat, an official at the state’s disaster management unit. “The process is ongoing and the numbers are rising fast.”
Thousands of people, including tourists and pilgrims, were stranded in the state’s higher elevations as floods and landslides swept away roads and bridges and buried buildings.
More than 100,000 people have been rescued so far in operations by air and foot over the past fortnight with local media reporting more than 1,000 still stranded.
An estimated 550 people were stuck in Badrinath, a Hindu pilgrimage site, Rawat said.
Rescue helicopters worked in spurts yesterday as bad weather grounded the choppers for hours at a stretch.
Several roads were reopened in lower-lying areas, and food, drinking water, medicine and other supplies were being sent to inaccessible villages, officials said.
A shortage of grain and other essentials was reported in more than 600 villages in the northern districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi, state-run Doordarshan television reported.
Clearing debris, identifying the dead and conducting mass cremations to avoid epidemics was under way in the worst-hit Kedarnath region.
The floods were triggered by heavier than normal and early monsoon rains.
The disaster has been dubbed a “Himalayan tsunami” by the media due to the torrents of water unleashed in the hilly region, which sent mud and boulders crashing down, burying homes, sweeping away buildings, roads and bridges.
On Tuesday 20 airmen and paramilitary members were killed when their helicopter crashed during a rescue mission.
Yesterday, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi met the family of one of them in Amethi.
Gandhi met the father, wife and children of junior warrant officer Akhilesh Kumar Singh of the Indian Air Force.
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh government announced Rs500mn for relief works in Uttarakhand and for construction of four pilgrim amenities centres.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy announced that Rs100mn would be given to Uttarakhand government for rescue and relief works.
Another Rs400mn will be spent through the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) for the construction of pilgrim amenities complexes.
The complexes will be built at Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunothri and Gangotri at a cost of Rs100mn each.
The TTD, which manages the famous Tirumala temple at Tirupati, was asked to work out proposals for construction of pilgrim amenities complexes.
The chief minister also announced a compensation of Rs500,000 each to the families of pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh who died in Uttarakhand. This is in addition to the ex-gratia given by the central government and other agencies.