A state Authority Uttarakhand State Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre in its report to Union Home Minister has said that casualties in the affected areas may run into thousands with about 90 'dharamashalas' (rest houses for pilgrims) swept away in the flash floods. preliminary the toll has been kept officially at 150.
With the weather clearing up, the focus was on rescue operations both in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where two IAF and one state chopper was making sorties to rescue 600 stranded tourists.
Uttarakhand, over 15,000 people stranded in Kedarnath and Govindghat on way to Hemkund Sahib have been evacuated so far to Joshimath relief camps through air and road routes, IG police R S Meena said.
"Apart from the 12 helicopters already engaged in rescue operations in affected areas, eight more have been roped in for the purpose to step up the process," Meena said.
Rescue efforts are being concentrated as of now on Kedarnath shrine and its adjoining areas in Rudraprayag district which has been the worst hit with about 90 dharamshalas in the temple area, where pilgrims were staying.Having been swept away by the flood waters, he said. Two helicopters have flown from Dehradun to evacuate stranded people.
Army has also deployed its mountain rescue teams to evacuate the pilgrims. Scores of villages remain under water and cannot be tracked.Hence there is uncertainty about the casualties caused, he said, adding the "devastation is massive".
Rescue efforts also picked up in rain-battered tribal Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh with two IAF and one state chopper making sorties to rescue 600 tourists and others stranded in remote areas.
The sorties started at 6.30 AM in the morning and people stranded at various places for past five days are being dropped at Rampur, official sources said.
In all, 278 people were evacuated till Wednesday evening and about 600 tourists and other people were still stranded at various places.
In Uttar Pradesh, the water levels in the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Sharda, Ghaghra, Rapti and Kuanon continued to rise at several places.
The Mavi Satpudha Dam breached on the left bank of the Yamuna river in Shamli district on Wednesday and efforts were on to plug it with the help of locals, officials said.
Some areas in Saharanpur city were still submerged, while rail traffic on the Saharanpur-Ambala route was disrupted due to waterlogging. In Bijnore, the water level of the tributaries of the Ganga was rising.
Relief and rescue operations continued on a war footing and people were being shifted to safer places in Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich and Farrukhabad districts, officials said.
However, the weather remained dry in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with no report of fresh rainfall in the region.
The flow of water through Hathni Kund barrage over Yamuna river near Yamunanagar in Haryana has also decreased as against the unprecedented 8.06 lakh cusecs water discharge over the weekend.
Revenue department officials of Haryana are conducting a survey to ascertain the damage caused to crops due to heavy rains last week in districts of Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panipat recently.
A bench of justices A K Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi directed the governments to deploy sufficient number of helicopters to rescue flood-affected people in the area. "We direct as an interim measure that all stranded people be provided immediate relief by the state and district authorities by giving them food, medicines and other essential things including fuel," the bench said.
A bench of justices A K Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi directed the governments to deploy sufficient number of helicopters to rescue flood-affected people in the area. "We direct as an interim measure that all stranded people be provided immediate relief by the state and district authorities by giving them food, medicines and other essential things including fuel," the bench said.
It asked the Centre and National Disaster Management Authority to provide all required resources to the state governemnt. The court passed the order on a PIL filed by a lawyer Ajay Bansal seeking its direction to Centre and state governemnt to rescue people stranded in the state.
The bench also said that authorities should not discriminate among the affected people in relief and rehabilitation operations after the petitioner alleged that government agencies are neglecting people stranded in Gangotri. It also asked the Centre to file a report on the relief and rehabilitation work in the state on 25th June when the case will be taken up for further hearing.
"We also direct, depending on the availability of helicopters, sufficient number of helicopters be deployed for picking up the stranded persons," the apex court said in its order. Although the official toll is over 150, it is feared that thousands of pilgrims staying in 90 rest houses may have been washed away.
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