Over 10,000 personnel of the armed forces, 18 helicopters and a transport plane of the Air Force have been deployed for relief and rescue operations in the state where thousands have been stranded at tourist spots and pilgrim centres.
"What chairperson UPA and I saw today was most distressing. While the most recent estimates put the death toll at 102, it is feared that loss of lives could eventually be much higher," Singh told reporters.He said more than 10,000 people have been rescued and were being provided food, clothing and shelter.
"Many persons still remain stranded. The maximum damage has been in Kedarnath and its vicinity," he said.
"I have decided to provide an amount of Rs 1000 crore to Uttarakhand for disaster relief, of which Rs 145 crore is being released immediately," Singh said after a meeting with state chief minister Vijay Bahuguna.
Singh said he has also directed all Central agencies to render all possible assistance in their domain to the State.
Rescue teams were finally able to evacuate some of the people stranded in higher reaches of Uttarakhand on Wednesday even though damaged roads and washed away bridges continued to hinder evacuation throughout the day. The government, on its part, has pumped in immediate relief funds and rescue choppers to the battered north Indian state, which has been devastated due to torrential rains that have caused massive landslides and fatal floods.
The Indian Army managed to rescue 9,000 people from areas around Uttarkashi even though thousands still remained without any help in the state's remotest part - Kedarnath. Special mountain rescue teams have been formed by the Army to provide immediate relief to the stranded tourists and pilgrims. This is the season for many pilgrimages that take place in the state, resulting in high number of people congregating in different part of Uttarakhand. Many tourists also head over to the hilly state to escape harsh north Indian summer.
he southwest monsoon this year has advanced over India at the fastest rate in more than half a century, covering the country by Sunday, about a month ahead of normal. The last time the annual rains spanned the entire country at such speed was in 1961, but even then it wasn't until June 21 that all of India was covered.
The northeast monsoon usually reaches Nepal by June 10 and spreads from east to west across the country within four days, according to Barun Paudel, a meteorologist at Nepal's department of hydrology and meteorology.
"This year, the monsoon winds from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea hit Nepal at the same time on June 14 causing abnormally heavy rainfall in the western part of the country," Mr. Paudel said.
He said western Nepal, which has been hardest hit by floods and landslides, had received 19.3 centimeters of rainfall since the monsoon's arrival. In a typical monsoon, the area receives a total of 19.2 centimeters of rainfall in the entire month of June, he added.
Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand, received 38 centimeters of rainfall in 24 hours between Sunday and Monday morning, the most rain ever recorded in the city, according to an official from the India Meteorological Department.
The early arrival of the rains was caused by a low pressure, cyclonic area over northwest India, the India Meteorological Department's director general L.S. Rathore said.
A horrific devastation in Uttarakhand and the havoc in the holy town of Kedarnath will hit the tourism sector hard. Uttarakhand government sources say that it may take two to three years to start the Kedarnath tour again.
While speaking to the IBN7, government officers said that the famous Kedarnath shrine has suffered severe damages as it was almost completely submerged by floods and mudslides. Many shops, houses and hotels around the shrine have been razed to the ground due to flash floods. Even the roads have been washed away.
According to the sources several villages are cut off from rest of the country and badly affected. The rescue teams may take more than two weeks to even reach such villages. Many villages have been washed away and the only indications that they ever existed are the rubble left in the area.
Officials say the famous Kedarnath shrine has suffered severe damages as it was almost submerged by floods and mudslides.
Officials are not ready to make an estimate of the people killed as the rescue teams are yet to reach some of the worst affected areas.
Indian Air Force teams carrying out rescue operations and evacuations in Uttarakhand say the process is a tedious one and will be long before it's over.
At the moment, people are being evacuated from Kedarnath and being brought to a place where there is an Army camp or some scope of medicine and food.
Almost 5,000 guides and their animals that take pilgrims from Gaurikund to Kedarnath are missing. Authorities say rescue operations in the temple town will be over by Wednesday evening.
The government has expressed concerns over people stranded in different parts of Uttarakhand. The Union Cabinet Secretary said 5,000 people were stranded in Badrinath and 3,000 in Dangi. He said medical aid is being provided and the NDRF and Army teams are helping in a big way in rescuing people. He also said more than 120 sorties are on the rescue mission.
The Prime Minister announced ex gratia assistance of Rs two lakh each to the families of those who have lost their lives and Rs 50,000 each to those injured.
In addition, ex gratia assistance of Rs one lakh each would also be provided to those whose houses have been completely destroyed and Rs 50,000 each to those whose houses have been damaged.
The Prime Minister said he and Gandhi saw the large scale devastation that has been caused in the flood affected areas of Uttarakhand.
"Our hearts go out to the families of those who have lost their lives and those who have suffered injury or loss of property in this huge tragedy," he said.
Singh said assessing the magnitude of the losses, both in terms of lives lost and houses destroyed, or the damage to buildings, roads and other infrastructure, was an exercise that will take some more time.
"The priority for the authorities at the moment is to rescue the stranded and provide urgently-needed succor to those most in need of it," he said adding the central and state governments have deployed all possible resources to deal with the immediate aftermath of the ghastly tragedy.
"The immediate need is for rescue and relief operations and the government will not spare any effort in this regard," Singh said.
He said about 5,500 jawans and officers of the army, 3,000 men of the Border Roads Organisation and 600 ITBP personnel were engaged in relief and rescue efforts.
Thirteen teams of the National Disaster Response Force have also been deployed, Singh said adding the Air Force has deployed 18 helicopters and a C-130 aircraft.
Private helicopters have also been engaged by the state government.
"The central and state governments will continue to work in close coordination to ensure that every possible effort is made not only to provide immediate relief to the affected persons but also to help them reconstruct their lives," he said.
Kedarnath temple closed for one year
The famous Kedarnath shrine located in the Himalayan ranges in rain-ravaged Uttarakhand is safe but will remain out of bounds for at least one year, chief minister Vijay Bahuguna said.
"Kedarnath shrine is safe but it is under a lot of slush," he told here after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who announced Rs 1,000 crore aid to the state to handle the relief and rescue operations.
Bahuguna said there was lot of debris around the shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva and it would require at least one year to clear it.
"Kedarnath shrine will remain out of bounds for pilgrims for one year," the chief minister said.
Parts of Uttarakhand experienced flash floods triggered by incessant rains over the past three days which has left 150 people dead and thousands others, most of them tourists and pilgrims, stranded.
The PM and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi undertook an aerial survey of the rain-affected regions.
Pictures of the Kedarnath temple, one of the holiest of the Hindu shrines, in today's newspapers had raised concerns over the safety of the shrine.
Located in the Himalayas at a height of 3584 meters near the Chorabari glacier, the Kedarnath temple is a popular destination for Hindu pilgrims from all over the world.
Twenty-two helicopters have been pressed into rescue work and the strategy is to airlift people from the worst hit areas. But on the ground, the movement of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel has been crippled by landslides.
Even though aerial surveys and rescue missions by the Indian Army, Indian Air Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and clearing skies provided some aid to the people, places that have been most affected by the nature's fury have remained inaccessible due damaged transport and road services. Lack of manpower also added to the woes, though Bahuguna sought to clarify that there are enough resources and funds available in the state.
However, he admitted that there is no estimate of the exact death toll yet and that he did not expect the monsoon havoc to turn into a calamity of this proportions. Bahuguna confirmed that 500 roads and 175 bridges in the state have been washed away. He further added that thousands still remain stranded in the state. According to CNN-IBN, around 70,000 people are stuck in the state.
Bahuguna also said it would be difficult for the Kedarnath Yatra to be resumed for a year. "I don't think we can resume the Yatra there for one year. 18 km of road has been damaged. Kedarnath is in debris. The temple has been saved but there is eight to ten feet of debris all around," he told reporters.
The Chief Minister said until the road is constructed, the debris cannot be removed. "We need machines, cooperation of the Army, Air Force. So, it is a problem of large magnitude. The state government and the central government together are doing their best," he said. Bahuguna said if the weather is favourable in the coming days, then things will improve.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home RPN Singh tried to defend Bahuguna's visit to Delhi, which many see as inappropriate as his state is suffering from such a huge crisis, and said the Chief Minister barely stayed in Delhi for half hour.
Singh also said the rescue conditions are very difficult but that the paramilitary forces are doing their best. He confirmed that roads have severely been affected in Kedarnath hampering the rescue operation. "But our primary concern is to make people safe and secure. This is a problem of huge magnitude," he said.
MoS Home also said there will be no discrimination done in evacuating people as reports of VIPs receiving special treatment and being rescued earlier than other citizens surfaced. "Whoever is worst affected and whoever we reach first will get help. There will be no special treatment given to anybody," Singh said.
Noting that the government's first priority is to evacuate the people who are in grave danger, Singh said, "It's not that 60,000 people are stranded in hills and water. Some of them are in hotels and homes." He declined to go into the remarks of BJP leaders including Sushma Swaraj with regard to the disaster, saying, "Instead of making slogans, what is important is what we do...I would not like to make it a political issue or give it a colour of politics."
Meanwhile, Railways decided to press services of special trains to rescue people stranded due to the flash floods at Haridwar, Rishikesh and other areas. Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge has instructed the Railway Board to do whatever possible to rescue people from the flood affected areas, said a senior Railway Ministry official.
Special trains will be pressed into service from stations like Dehradun, Rishikesh and Haridwar for stranded passengers. Moradabad division has been asked to arrange trains for the stranded passengers. Special counters will be opened at stations for these passengers, said the official.
Passenger profile will be carried out to know their destination and accordingly train services will be launched, the official said.
However, the vast destruction in the state that damaged routes of several important pilgrimages prompted the government to cancel batches 2 to 10 of Kailash Manasarovar Yatra. The road between Almora and the road-head at Tawaghat has been washed away at several places and some major bridges have also been damaged.
Helpline numbers:
Uttarkashi: 01374-226126, 226161
Chamoli: 01372-251437
Tehri: 01376-233433
Rudraprayag: 01732-1077
The ITBP helpline and control room numbers: 011-24362892, 9968383478
Army medical emergency helpline numbers: 18001805558, 18004190282, 8009833388
Uttarakhand Helpline numbers: 0135-2710334, 2710335, 2710233
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