1.1 lakh people evacuated in 17 days
3 July 2013 12:10 AM GMT
Seventeen days after the Uttarakhand disaster, around 1.1 lakh people stranded by flash floods and landslides after monsoon rains pounded the hill state on 15 June were evacuated by thousands of personnel of the Army, IAF, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), who braved all odds.
The IAF, which concluded its air sorties, has however stationed 10 choppers in the state for about a week or so for use in any operations, an IAF official said in Delhi. The rescue mission was marred by tragedy when an IAF Mi17 V5 chopper carrying 20 personnel and crew crashed killing all on board.
Though the rescue mission has concluded, authorities faced a daunting task of cremation of badly decomposed bodies in Kedarnath area with bad weather hampering this process for the fourth day.
Another challenge is removing tonnes of debris from the shrine premises in Kedarnath as there are no roads to transport heavy equipment like JCBs there for the purpose, Uttarakhand DGP Satyavrat Bansal said.
He said the process of cremating bodies in Kedarnath could not resume even today. ‘A team of health experts and trained police personnel has been dispatched to the shrine but the exercise could not begin due to bad weather,’ he added.
He added that disposal of bodies is an uphill task due to a variety of factors including bad weather and breached roads. A total of 36 bodies have so far been disposed of in Kedarnath with 60-65 more lying visibly on the ground yet to be consigned to flames.
The IAF, which concluded its air sorties, has however stationed 10 choppers in the state for about a week or so for use in any operations, an IAF official said in Delhi. The rescue mission was marred by tragedy when an IAF Mi17 V5 chopper carrying 20 personnel and crew crashed killing all on board.
Though the rescue mission has concluded, authorities faced a daunting task of cremation of badly decomposed bodies in Kedarnath area with bad weather hampering this process for the fourth day.
Another challenge is removing tonnes of debris from the shrine premises in Kedarnath as there are no roads to transport heavy equipment like JCBs there for the purpose, Uttarakhand DGP Satyavrat Bansal said.
He said the process of cremating bodies in Kedarnath could not resume even today. ‘A team of health experts and trained police personnel has been dispatched to the shrine but the exercise could not begin due to bad weather,’ he added.
He added that disposal of bodies is an uphill task due to a variety of factors including bad weather and breached roads. A total of 36 bodies have so far been disposed of in Kedarnath with 60-65 more lying visibly on the ground yet to be consigned to flames.
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