Glacier snap caused catastrophe
20 Jun 2013 5:38 AM IST
The rescued pilgrims from Kedarnath arrived at the Jolly Grant airport on Wednesday with heart-wrenching tales of death and disaster caused by roaring waters of Mandakini river that brought with it several million tonnes of silt. The major cause of devastation of Kedarnath town was the breaking of the Kedar dome, a glacier-like body that led to a rupture in the Charbari lake reservoir, which sent water gushing out.
On Wednesday, prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi made an aerial survey of the disaster-affected areas and later held a meeting with Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna in New Delhi. Earlier in the day, explaining the extent of damage, Bahuguna said: ‘Don’t think we’ll be able to start the yatra before one year.’ Though the government confirmed death of more than 150 pilgrims, it was tight lipped about the fact that the toll could rise sharply. The prime minister announced Rs 1,000 crore for disaster relief measures in the state. ‘The Congress president may visit the affected areas and relief camps shortly,’ party general secretary Ajay Maken said.
According to sources, at least 10 specialist mountaineering rescue teams have been deployed in the mountains around Kedarnath to search for stranded pilgrims. This is in addition to about 5,500 jawans and officers of the army, 3,000 men of the Border Roads Organisation, 600 ITBP personnel, 22 helicopters and a transport plane of the Air Force.
Pradeep Kumar Aggarwal and his wife Babita Aggarwal, who were part of a 40-member group from Jharkhand that arrived at Jolly Grant on Wednesday from Guptkashi in an army chopper after being stranded in their hotel for three days, said they don’t know the whereabouts of their group members. The Aggarwals did not join their group on the tragic trek as their elderly mother fell ill and was not in a position to go on the trek.
Another pilgrim, Rameshwar Gupta, who arrived in the same chopper from Guptkashi, said the toll could be much more than what was being reported by the administration, which remained paralysed through out the tragedy. ‘But for the jawans of the armed forces, we would have perished,’ said Gupta.
Kedar-Badri temple committee chief Ganesh Godiyal was quoted as saying about 300 pilgrims who had taken shelter inside Kedarnath temple have survived, while 20 temple staff are among hundreds of others, who were present in the precincts of the temple, are missing even as rescue operations are being conducted on a war footing.
Relief works are underway elsewhere in the state too. Chamoli additional district magistrate Sanjay Kumar said 1,500 pilgrims and locals have been evacuated so far from Ghanghariya, Duendhar and Pulna from near Hemkund Sahib in the district to Joshimath relief camps. With the improvement in weather conditions, many more stranded pilgrims are likely to be evacuated to safety by the evening, he said, adding evacuation of pilgrims from Badrinath is next on their agenda.
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