In order to save her life in the absence of adequate assistance at one of the Char Dham shrines, Badrinath in Chamoli district, Shanti Devi traveled nearly 12 kilometer to reach to Joshimath. Completely haggard, Devi was unable to control her agony and was lying at the entrance gate of Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun on Friday. The sexagenarian lady was completely exhausted and the humid weather around the airport was making the situation more worsens for her to survive.
In an exclusive interaction with The Pioneer, Shanti Devi eyes were filled with tears. “I lost everything,” she said, adding that my feet are paining very badly and the pain is intolerable. “I remained hungry for nearly two days and then, I decided to walk towards Joshimath and finally I was evacuated by the army authority,” she reiterated, adding that the situation is equally worst along the Char Dham Yatra route.
Her husband, Gajraj Singh, lamented that first few days of the natural calamity was worst finally army authority took over the charge over there and carried rescue operations at the disaster hit areas of Uttarakhand. Echoing the same agony, Rajeshwari Devi said that she would have died in the natural calamity if she had not decided to walk towards Joshimath. According to her, Rajeshwari has been visiting Char Dham for the last four years, and she has never witnessed such disaster in her whole life.
Another 63-year old lady, Karuna said it is being more than 10 days had passed since the disaster struck Uttarakhand, but the Government is yet to repair roads along the Char Dham Yatra route. Although, the administration was transporting the victims to Madhya Pradesh, she along with two dozen victims was queued for their turn to reach their hometown.