The Himalayan tragedy continued to unfold today with fears that thousands of pilgrims staying at 90 rest houses in Uttarakhand may have been washed away in flash floods even as rescue operations were stepped up with additional IAF choppers pressed into service to evacuate the stranded people in Kedarnath area.

In its report to the Union Home Ministry, Uttarakhand State Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre has said that casualties in the affected areas may run into thousands with about 90 ‘dharamshalas’ (rest houses for pilgrims) swept away in the flash floods. However, the toll has been kept officially at 150.

Rescue operations

With the weather clearing up, the focus was on rescue operations both in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where two IAF and one state chopper was making sorties to rescue 600 stranded tourists.

In Uttarakhand, over 15,000 people stranded in Kedarnath and Govindghat on way to Hemkund Sahib have been evacuated so far to Joshimath relief camps through air and road routes, IG police R.S. Meena told PTI.

“Apart from the 12 helicopters already engaged in rescue operations in the affected areas, eight more have been roped in for the purpose to step up the process,” Meena said.

Rescue efforts are being concentrated as of now on Kedarnath shrine and its adjoining areas in Rudraprayag district which has been the worst-hit with about 90 dharamshalas in the temple area, where pilgrims were staying, having been swept away by the flood waters, he said.

Helicopter services

Two helicopters have flown from Dehradun to evacuate the stranded people. The Army has also deployed its mountain rescue teams to evacuate the pilgrims.

Scores of villages remain under water and cannot be tracked. Hence, there is uncertainty about the casualties caused, he said, adding that the “devastation is massive’’.

Rescue efforts were also stepped up in the rain-battered tribal Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh with two IAF and one state chopper making sorties to rescue 600 tourists and others stranded in remote areas.

The sorties started at 6.30 a.m. today morning and people stranded at various places for the past five days are being dropped at Rampur, official sources said.

In all, 278 people were evacuated till yesterday evening and about 600 tourists and other people were still stranded at various places.

Rising water levels

In Uttar Pradesh, the water levels in Ganga, Yamuna, Sharda, Ghaghra, Rapti and Kuanon rivers continued to rise at several places.

The Mavi Satpudha Dam breached on the left bank of the Yamuna river in Shamli district yesterday and efforts were on to plug it with the help of locals, officials said.

Some areas in Saharanpur city were still submerged, while rail traffic on the Saharanpur-Ambala route was disrupted due to water-logging. In Bijnore, the water level of the tributaries of the Ganga was rising.

Relief and rescue operations continued on a war-footing and people were being shifted to safer places in Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich and Farrukhabad districts, officials said.

Dry weather

However, the weather remained dry in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with no report of fresh rainfall in the region.

The flow of water through Hathni Kund barrage over Yamuna river near Yamunanagar in Haryana has also decreased against the unprecedented 8.06 lakh cusecs water discharge over the week-end.

Revenue department officials of Haryana are conducting a survey to ascertain the damage caused to crops due to heavy rains last week in the districts of Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panipat recently.

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