Despite forecast of rain, dark clouds and thunderstorm from Monday to the month end, for thousands of stranded pilgrims in Uttarakhand there is a glimmer of hope. With the armed forces managing to reach nearly all the affected places, the authorities are hopeful that they will be able to save the lives of the remaining trapped people even if it rains heavily this week. The forces will continue Operation Surya Hope.
The armed forces have been able to evacuate majority of those stranded in Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri, now the final thrust is on rescuing nearly 7,000 pilgrims trapped in Badrinath.
Jawans of armed forces have reached Badrinath and are making all efforts to rescue people by air and roads. In addition to 40 people trapped in Kedarnath, around 20,000 pilgrims are stranded in different locations.
Met department has predicted moderate to heavy rain in some parts of Uttarakhand on Monday. According to the Met office, higher reaches of the State are likely to receive moderate rainfall.
However, officials said that majority of the stranded people are sheltered in safe places, so they don’t face threat to life unless the scale of the devastation repeats itself.
Faced with the daunting task of evacuating stranded pilgrims before rain lashes Uttrakhand on Monday, IAF, Army and ITBP continued to fly sorties and clear roads despite inclement weather on Sunday.
Uttrakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said rescue teams will take another fortnight to evacuate flood victims as the roads leading to affected areas were badly damaged.
Unable to fly helicopters in the morning due to bad weather, the IAF pressed all its 40 helicopters into service in the afternoon once the weather cleared.
The IAF flew 180 sorties to airlift more than 3,200 people from different parts of the flood-ravaged State.
The Army and the ITBP managed to clear Kedar valley near the famous Kedarnath shrine of all pilgrims by airlifting more than 500 pilgrims and rescuing 500 others on foot by establishing road connectivity.
Using cliff assault techniques, skilled mountain rescue troops of Army evacuated 460 people by foot through one of the most dangerous zones in Kedarnath Valley.
The pilgrims were given food, fresh water, medical aid, blankets and plastic sheets at Gauri Kund before
further evacuation to Sonprayag, officials said here on Sunday.
launching two teams simultaneously from Dharasu and Barkot, Army reached Hanuman Chetti on Saturday and moved towards Janak Chatti and Yamunotri on Sunday morning and evacuated all stranded pilgrims from Yamunotri.
Having rescued most of the pilgrims from Kedarnath and Gangotri, the Army launched Phase three of relief operations on Sunday focusing on evacuating people by road from the hubs at Harsil, Gauri Kund and Badrinath.
Evacuation was completed within a short span of time, officials said adding the Army Aviation Corps has deployed 11 helicopters for rescue missions besides 8,000 personnel.
With the construction of bridge across Alaknanda River at lam Bagar on Joshimath - Bardrinath road, it was now possible for pilgrims to be evacuated by foot from Badrinath to Govindghat. Vehicular movement is already underway between Govindghat and Joshimath, they said adding more than 1,300 people were motivated by the Army to move on foot and in vehicles along the 74 km stretch from Harsil to Uttarkashi.
Central Army Command chief lt General Anil Chait visited all the affected places including Gauri Kund and Jungle Chatti on Sunday and assured pilgrims of all possible help. Accompanied by senior officers, he will lead the trek and take along all the people willing to walk up to the nearest road head. The operation has been planned keeping in view the weather conditions.
As regards IAF operations, they said a C-130 J aircraft undertook a weather reconnaissance mission in the morning based on which the IAF helicopters started operation in Harsil Sector and another one carried fuel. Six AN-32 sorties airlifted bridging equipment, 50 paratroopers with 2,000 kg load, fuel barrels and two IAF Disaster Management Communication Vehicles. Incidentally, the IAF has flown more than 1,000 sorties over the last five to six days, airlifted 8,222 people and dropped 1,48,550 kg of equipment and relief material.
ITBP rescued 4,613 people on Sunday and have so far rescued 23,852 pilgrims. More than 200 ITBP expert mountaineers constructed two roped bridges at lambagad on Alaknanda river to double the number of victims being evacuated.
Road up to Hanumanchati was opened by ITBP for vehicular traffic and ITBP on Sunday safely escorted 2,500 victims up to lambagad.