JUNE 25- Ten days after tragedy struck Uttarakhand, around 10,000 people are still stranded in the hills. The rescue operations have been hampered by heavy rains in many parts of the state and the weather forecast isn’t raising much hopes.
It has been raining overnight in several places including Rishikesh, Dehradun, Harsil, Gangotri and Uttarkashi.
According to the Met department, more rains are expected in Uttarakhand in the next 72 to 96 hours.
Gangotri is expected to get about 40 to 70 mm rains on Tuesday.
Rains and thundershowers are expected in Kedarnath for the next 3 days.
In Badrinath too, heavy rains have been predicted, which will make the rescue operations more difficult. It will be an uphill task for the army and other agencies to reach those stranded in the hills.
As fresh rains, landslides and cloudburst posed a challenge to multi-agency operations, only 164 out of a total of 5,000 pilgrims stuck in the high-altitude temple town of Badrinath could be evacuated to Joshimath on Monday in the few small six-seat aircraft that could make limited sorties.
However, the rain-marred rescue efforts saw a total of a little around 1,000 pilgrims being evacuated from different areas including the Himalayan shrine in Chamoli and the Gangotri Valley, chief secretary Subhash Kumar told reporters in Dehradun.
Apart from 164 evacuated from Badrinath, 830 were evacuated from Harshil, Maneri and Bhatwari in Uttarkashi district to Dharasu, he said.
