Warnings saved many in Uttarakhand
Of the 2,000 stranded in landslide, 800 resumed onward journey
DEHRADUN: The alacrity of a beat constable on Friday helped hordes of pilgrims in Uttarakhand avoid a landslide on a key road that stranded thousands headed to the Badrinath shrine.
State police officials said the constable noticed around noon small rocks rolling down the Hathi Parvat, a landslide prone zone, at Vishnuprayag.
He alerted his seniors at the district headquarters in Chamoli, and more men were deployed there .
“At first, we helped people pass the stretch. But soon, more rocks started to fall and we immediately stopped movement,” said Tripti Bhatt, Chamoli superintendent of police.
At 2pm, two hours after the constable had spotted the first signs, a big portion of a hilltop came down crashing.
The ‘Chardham Yatra’is an annual pilgrimage to the Hindu sites at Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gamgotri and Yamunotri in Uttarakhand.
Of the around 2,000 people stranded after the landslide on Friday, 800 have resumed their onward journey and work is on to clear the debris, Chamoli district magistrate Ashish Joshi said.
The pilgrimage draws lakhs of people from India and Nepal to the Himalayan state every year.
“While around 11,000 pilgrims have been stationed at Badrinath shrine area that has the capacity to accommodate 80,000 pilgrims, nearly 1,200 were taken to safe places at Govindghat area and 450 pilgrims — those coming back —were stopped at Pandukeshwar,” Bhatt said.
NONE STRANDED ON CHARDHAM ROUTE Friday’s landslide on the Badrinath temple route affected 1,500 Chardham pilgrims but no one was stranded, the Uttara- khand government said on Saturday.
“...There were no unfortunate incidents, 1,800 tourists (against reported 15,000) were affected and arrangements were made for them,” chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat tweeted.
The state disaster management secretary, however, put the figure of the pilgrims to nearly 1,500.