Assured by the SDM to be airlifted, the pilgrims, stuck at Badrinath, keep on waiting for their turns. Their patience wearing thin with the promised choppers remaining elusive, they are now threatening the pandas (priests) to create nuisance at the shrine from Thursday in case they are not evacuated. Sensing things, the pandas have made themselves invisible.
The pandas are already a worried lot as they have been providing food to the pilgrims stranded due to road blockade at four places between Kanchanganga and lambagad since the time rain-triggered landslides. Now, add the fear of facing their wrath to their fast-depleting larders and the picture of their predicament becomes complete.
Initially, the district administration had opened langar (community kitchen), but then with kerosene and gas getting exhausted, things stopped. Officially, on June 29, the State Government had claimed that the Badrinath yatra will be resumed after remaining suspended for five days. It claimed to have repaired the breached stretches along the Himalayan shrine. But things on the ground say roads en route the shrine are still blocked.
The very first rain spell of the current monsoon season had breached the highway at Hathi Pahad, lambagad and Benakuli on June 24-25, bringing the pilgrimage to a halt.
later, a senior official boasted to have evacuated all the stuck-up pilgrims via air and roads. Talking to The Pioneer, Pundit Dinkar Babulkar said there is no trace of Government officials at Badrinath.
“Initially, they had assured that they would evacuate all the pilgrims by air in a day or two. So, most of them chose to stay put. They were happy spending time, singing and dancing to the tune of devotional songs. There was no food scarcity as langars were running.
But things turned grim when the langars closed after fuel was finished. The district administration officials who promised the stranded a great deal became conspicuously absent from the scene, leaving us to provide them with food. Our stocks are getting depleted. Feeling betrayed by the voluble officials, their nerves are fraying,” he recounted.
Talking to The Pioneer, Ganesh Bhai, who came along with 20 others from Maharashtra, said they had returned to Mumbai on 30 June. “Our experiences were bitter. The Government machinery was unresponsive. Around 2000-2300 pilgrims were stranded there. We somehow managed to reach home by hiring a car. We had to trudge the horribly precarious roads for about four kilometers,” he said.
Another pilgrim Amit Porwal who came from Bangluru, said they had remained stranded at the shrine. “We are surviving thanks to the generosity of the pandas. We have ceased to have confidence in the Government machinery. We know we have to manage things ourselves,” he added.
‘Could not have evacuated pilgrims’
Talking to The Pioneer, Chamoli DM Ashok Kumar said they could not have evacuated around 1,200 people, including 400 pilgrims, as they were busy with Yagya. “These pilgrims had gone there, not heeding our warning. We are now appealing to them to park their vehicles at Pandukeshwar so that they can return on foot after visiting the shrine,” he said. He further said, “The pilgrims talked to you because they are being provided with the essentials.”