Flashflood havoc in Uttarkashi
UTTARKASHI (Uttarakhand), Aug 5:
Disaster swept through the Himalayan village of Dharali on way to Gangotri on Tuesday with a massive cloudburst leading to flashfloods that barrelled through homes, trees and cars, trapping 60-70 people and leaving at least four dead.
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Dharali is the main stopover on way to Gangotri, the origin of the Ganges, and home to many hotels, restaurants and home stays.
At least half the village was buried under the fast flowing mudslide of slush, rubble and water, officials said as rescue personnel battled the elements in the ecologically fragile heights to contain the damage of the afternoon.
Contiguous buildings, including three and four-storey houses, fell like a pack of cards as the surging waters washed over them. The devastating flashflood came in the wake of a cloudburst somewhere in the catchment area of the Kheer Ganga river.
And Dharali was not the only hit.
The raging waters flowed down two different sides of the same hill, one towards Dharali and the other towards the village of Sukki, said State Disaster Management Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman.
The rain continued through the afternoon and till evening, hampering rescue efforts.
Besides, landslides blocked 163 roads, including five national highways, seven state highways and two border roads across the state, further impeding rescue and preventing personnel from getting to the far-flung area, about 140 km from the state capital Dehradun and usually a five-hour drive.
An Army team from the nearest location of Harsil was immediately rushed to the spot to launch rescue operations but teams from other places found it difficult to reach due to bad weather and disrupted roads, Suman said.
According to initial reports, at least four people have died, Uttarkashi District Magistrate Prashant Arya told reporters in Dehradun before rushing to the spot.
There was no official confirmation on the number of people who went missing after the flashflood but it is likely to be high as the sudden rush of floodwaters gave people no time to run towards safety.
Uttarakhand Principal Secretary R K Sudhanshu said 40 to 50 buildings are damaged. He added that helicopters could not be pressed into service either because of bad weather.
Meanwhile, the NDRF has decided to deploy its first-ever team of cadaver dogs to help locate those feared dead in the cloudburst incident in Uttarakhand, official sources said on Tuesday.
A pair of these dogs will be airlifted from Delhi even as three teams of the force, comprising 35 rescuers in each, have been rushed to the incident site from various locations in the state.
Two more National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are awaiting airlift from the Dehradun airport, they said.
The Northern Railway (NR) suspended all train operations on Tuesday evening on the Haridwar-Dehradun route as a big boulder fell on the track due to landslide.
“Between Haridwar-Motichur section on Haridwar-Dehradun route a boulder came on track,” Himanshu Upadhyay, Chief Public Relation Officer, Northern Railway said. (PTI)
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