17-yr-old girl, missing after 2013 Kedarnath floods, reunites with family

Chanchal, then 12, was feared dead but some good samaritans handed her over to an orphanage in Jammu, said director Gyanendra Mishra of NGO Childline Aligarh which helped in bringing the girl home.

It was not less than a fairy tale when the 17-year-old girl returned home in Aligarh after being separated from her family in devastating floods that struck Kedarnath five years ago. Even after being reunited, her eyes still search for her father who remains missing till date.

In a fairy tale ending of a real-life story, a 17-year-old, mentally challenged girl, who had gone missing in Kedarnath during 2013 deluge there, has been reunited with her family in Aligarh after five years. (PTI)

“Papa ka pata nahin hai (There’s is no clue where father is),” says Chanchal who lives at Lohiya Nagar in Banna Devi locality of Aligarh. She was aged hardly 13 when she had accompanied her parents and two sisters to Kedarnath in 2013.

‘Apni bachchi laut ke aayi hai’ (our child has returned home) says a delighted Mohan Kumar, Chanchal’s uncle who says she would “go nowhere and live with chacha”. “It is indeed a miracle,” added Kumar who is still looking for his brother Rajesh.

“The girl lost track of her family and reached a shelter home in Jammu as she was not able to speak clearly and could not give out detail of her family and home city initially,” said Gyanendra Mishra from Childline, a unit of ‘Udaan’ organisation instrumental in return of girl after being asked by Aligarh MLA Sanjeev Raja. “Police from Jammu brought her to Aligarh on Monday and handed her over to her grandmother Shakuntla Devi in presence of the MLA,” said Mishra.