Health facilities to be set up on yatra route
Uttarakhand health secretary Dr R Rajesh Kumar on Sunday said that hospital facilities will be set up in Badrinath and Kedarnath Dham area before the starting of the Char Dham yatra this year.
Kumar said approval has been received from the state cabinet to purchase equipment for these hospitals. “Apart from this, medical teams experienced and trained to work in the high Himalayan area will be deployed on the Char Dham route so that the pilgrims can get immediate health services. I also want to appeal to the pilgrims to get their health tested before they come for the yatra”.
Last year, 245 pilgrims had died during the Char Dham yatra due to health ailments and other issues. Of 245 pilgrims, 120 deaths were reported on the Kedarnath Dham Yatra route, 46 deaths on the Badrinath Dham route, 30 deaths on the Gangotri Dham route and 39 on the Yamunotri Dham route. Nine deaths were also reported on the Hemkund Sahib route in the Chamoli district, according to data from the state government.
The health secretary said that as per the instructions of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and health minister Dhan Singh Rawat, the health department has started preparations for the Char Dham yatra. Instructions have been received from chief secretary Radha Raturi with regard to the preparations. Coordination is being maintained with all departments concerned”.
Dr Kumar further said this time a medical team of about 150 people will be deployed at Char Dham route for the convenience
of the pilgrims. “This team will be given training to work in high-altitude areas. Doctors will be deployed for 15 days each. This time the department will not post doctors from Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi in the Char Dham yatra. Instead, doctors and medical staff will be deployed from Kumaon and other districts”.
Dr Kumar said that the equipment will be available in the hospitals of Badrinath and Kedarnath before the yatra. “Tenders will be issued for this soon”, he said.
He added arrangements are also being made for health check-ups of the pilgrims at various places on the Char Dham routes. “This time, special focus will be placed on screening pilgrims at the initial phase. The health of the patients will be thoroughly examined at the health check-up points on the Yatra route. After that, they will be allowed to proceed further,” Kumar said.
The health secretary also appealed to pilgrims that they must get their health checked before starting the yatra. “Heart and blood pressure patients as well as pregnant women should
travel only after getting their health checked. The department will maintain health records of the pilgrim. If the pilgrim faces any inconvenience anywhere then he should get himself checked at the nearest check-up point.”
The health secretary said that during the yatra, devotees come from all over the country as well as from foreign countries, but it is often seen that due to the absence of health guidelines in their local languages, devotees sometimes face difficulties in understanding the guidelines.
“In view of this, the health department had last year started issuing SOP (standard operating procedure for Char Dham yatra) in nine other languages apart from Hindi and English. “Same thing will happen this time also. This year SOP will be issued in 11 languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi and Oriya”.
The portals of Badrinath Dham will be opened at 6 am on May 12 this year. Last year, 5.6 million people took the Char Dham yatra. In 2022, over 4.6 million pilgrims had visited the four revered Himalayan shrines.