3 KILLED, 400 STRANDED IN U’KHAND SNOWSTORM
RUDRAPRAYAG: Three persons including a tourist each from Delhi and Mumbai died in Uttarakhand on Tuesday as hundreds of pilgrims, including former chief minister Harish Rawat and Rajya Sabha member Pradeep Tamta, were left stranded in Kedarnath due to sudden snowfall in the upper reaches of the state.
Uttarakhand government officials said Sudama Singh, (52) a pilgrim from Mumbai, and Janki Devi (61) a pilgrim from New Delhi died of heart attacks, in Uttarakhand’s Yamunotri and Kedarnath shrines respectively on Tuesday. A Nepalese porter identified as Akash died in an avalanche near the Kedartal trek in Uttarkashi.
The district administration said that 35 other members of team that Akash was a part of, were safe.
“We have sent three teams to rescue the stranded trekkers,” said Ashish Srivastava, district magistrate, Uttarkashi.
Rudraprayag’s district magistrate Mangesh Ghildiyal said around 4,200 pilgrims on different places of the Kedarnath route moved towards Gaurikund, the starting point to the shrine. About 400 pilgrims, mostly elderly ones, decided to stay in the town due to inclement weather.
“The pilgrims at Kedarnath are being helped by SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) jawans, local police and the administration to come down to Gaurikund, the base station for Kedarnath,” Ghildiyal said. Snowfall of about five inches was reported at Kedarnath, which disrupted helicopter services and pilgrim movement. However, in Badrinath, another popular shrine in the state that also received snowfall, no pilgrims were stranded. Superintendent of Police (SP) Chamoli, Tripti Bhatt said the movement of pilgrims in Badrinath shrine had become normal by the afternoon. She added that the pilgrims have been advised to take precautions. The hills in Uttarakhand have been receiving rainfall as the meteorological centre warned of more rains and a storm in the next 24 hours. However, the centre added that snow in the higher reaches during this time of the year was not unusual. Former CM Rawat, MP from Almora Tamta, local MLA Manoj Rawat and former MLC Prithvi Pal Singh were among a dozen Congress leaders who started a trek to the Kedarnath shrine from Gaurikund in Rudraprayag district on Sunday and are now reportedly stranded in the area. “The government has made enough propaganda about the Kedarnath Yatra and even introduced a laser show for it but ignored the convenience of an ordinary pilgrim who prefers going to Kedarnath on foot from Gaurikund,” Tamta said over the phone. The situation comes as a challenge to the government, which had promised smooth a chardham yatra.
The state’s capital Dehradun also witnessed a storm and several trees were uprooted due to heavy winds in the cantonment area of the city. Haridwar and Nainital also received rains with winds at high speed on Tuesday morning. Union home minister Rajnath Singh called Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat and took a stock of the situation, officials said. They added that Singh assured the CM all the needed help.