Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said on Monday that more than 80,000 stranded people in interior districts of the State have been evacuated to safer places so far and those still remained there will be evacuated soon.
He further informed that the disaster experienced in Uttarakhand has affected nearly 40,000 sq km area of the State.
He stated this while hosting a group Central and State leaders who had visited the rain-ravaged State on Monday, which included Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Porika Balram Naik, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Andhra Pradesh Cabinet Minister Sridhar Babu. The leaders also offered to help the State in mending the damage wreaked by heavy rains.
The Chief Minister also expressed his gratitude to the Union Government, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and other States that had come forward to help the State. He said that the Army, Indo Tibetan Border Police, National Disaster Response Force, Indian Air Force, Border Roads Organisation and State Government were working overtime. Roads, electricity and water supply have been affected in 40,000 sq km area of the State, said Bahuguna.
On Monday, NDRF teams screened out the areas of Kedarnath, Jungle Chatti, Gaurikund, Guptkashi, Sonprayag, Bhairav Chatti and Gaddi and rescued 59 persons. Besides, teams from NDRF and ITBP have also recovered more than Rs 1.14 crore from plunderers. NDRF used the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to screen the whole area of Kedarnath axis to rule out the presence of survivors in the inaccessible places.
Till now, NDRF has rescued 5,941 persons and retrieved 125 dead bodies by search and rescue operations besides helping civil administration in distributing relief materials. More than 200 ITBP expert mountaineers have constructed a rope bridge on Alakananda River at lambagad with three ropes. This has tripled the number of victims being evacuated through rope, he highlighted.
So far, the ITBP has rescued 26,538 pilgrims with 1,509 on Monday afternoon. As no helicopter could fly in Kedarnath axis and Badrinath axis on Monday, evacuation was conducted through the land route.
Only one private chopper operated a couple of sorties in Badrinath axis. This private helicopter said to be arranged by Maharashtra Government evacuated 12 pilgrims from Badrinath/Hanuman Chatti. As per assessment by the ITBP rescue team on ground, 1,340 pilgrims/locals were still stranded at Harsil in Uttarkashi. Cloudy weather and occasional drizzling are hampering air evacuation being operated by Army and Indian Air Force.