INCESSANT RAIN HALTS HEMKUNT SAHIB YATRA; PILGRIMS AIRLIFTED

Pilgrims airlifted from Kedarnath, Hemkunt Sahib; no loss of life, but some roads, bridges washed away

DEHRADUN: Rain that occurred on Wednesday and Thursday has blocked several roads and washed away bridges in Uttarakhand, halting the Char Dham and Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimages. Rescue teams on Friday airlifted stranded pilgrims from the Kedarnath temple and the Sikh shrine of Hemkunt Sahib.

Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat claimed the situation was normal and the state government was “regulating pilgrimage”. A statement from State Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre suggested that a bridge connecting Sonprayag and Gaurikund on the way to Kedarnath, besides two cars and 100 metres of road in the Badrinath Valley, had been washed away the gushing waters of the Alaknanada and Mandakini rivers.

Several rivers in the state, including the mighty Ganga, are flowing close to the danger mark. On Friday, the water in the Ganga was at 292.95 meters, just 1.5meters below the danger mark. “Officials were sent to do a reconnaissance of the various dangerous points on Friday morning and they will report whether the pilgrims can progress or not,” the CM told the media. Rawat also estimated the loss from the last spell of rain to be `50 crore.

He also said the stranded pilgrims had been airlifted to safer places, where officials were taking care of them. “These people now want to go off to their destinations,” he said. He said six bridges had been washed away on the routes leading to Kedarnath, Badrinath and Hemkunt Sahib and engineers were at work to reopen those in a day.

Meanwhile, additional chief secretary Rakesh Sharma, who left for Hemkunt Sahib on Friday, said 900 people had been air lifted to safer places and an equal number brought out by road. “Only 40 priests remain at the Kedarnath temple, and all the pilgrims have been taken away. At lodges near Badrinath, 2,500 people are staying safely, and they have said that they will go away only when the route is restored,” said Sharma. HTC