Three people were killed, and 17 went missing, after a major landslide hit shanty shops located on the side of the mountain at Gaurikund — the base camp for Kedarnath temple — late on Thursday night and the early hours of Friday. Triggered by heavy rainfall, the landslide is the biggest accident on the Kedarnath route since the flash floods that left over 6,000 dead a decade ago.
Nandan Singh Rajwar, district disaster management officer, told The Hindu that rescue operations started in the wee hours of Friday and continued till late afternoon. “The team of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) managed to recover three bodies till 4 p.m. on Friday, while 17 people are still missing. We had to halt the rescue operations due to rains and unavailability of light after sunset,” he said.
Shops washed away
According to eyewitnesses, torrential rain started falling in the area from 11 p.m. on Thursday. At around 11.30 p.m., a large part of the hill broke off with a loud sound and fell on a roadside shop and dhaba before crashing into the river along with the debris. When local residents reached the spot after hearing the noise, they heard cries for help coming from the gorge and found that two shops were being washed away.
The shops hit by the landslide were reportedly owned by Nepalis who have been living in Uttarakhand for some time. They were also living at their shops, along with their families. One of these shops is owned by Amar Bohra, whose wife Anita and five children are among those missing. Three tourists who were stranded at his shop in the night are also missing.
The other shop washed away by the landslide is owned by Bir Bahadur, who is also missing, along with his wife Sumita, daughter Nisha, and two tourists who were in the shop.
Arrangements for yatris
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami took stock of the rescue operations on Friday and issued instructions to the officials concerned to make proper arrangements for Kedarnath yatris who are stranded on the yatra route.
Even as a heavy downpour continued to lash the Kedar valley since Wednesday, 434 pilgrims reached the temple on Friday. So far this season, 11,79,534 people have taken the Kedarnath yatra, which will continue till mid-November.
