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3 killed, 17 missing after landslide hits Kedarnath
Officials involved in the rescue operation indicated that there was little hope of finding any survivors
Mussoorie/ Dehradun Three bodies were recovered and a frantic search was on for 17 people, including five children, after a landslide washed away a clutch of tarpaulin-covered shops along the Kedarnath Yatra route near Gaurikund into the Mandakini river, which has been in spate since Thursday night.
Officials involved in the rescue operation indicated that there was little hope of finding any survivors.
Personnel of the State Disaster Relief Force reached spot shortly after the landslide at 11.50pm on Thursday, but had to put off rescue operations till the morning because of the constant rain, and boulders continuing to fall off the mountain face. Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer (DDMO) Nandan Singh Rajwar said that, on Friday morning, teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), SDRF, police and district administration were pressed into service.
The victims were shopkeepers (and their family members) who set up stalls along the 16km pilgrim trek from Gaurikund to Kedarnath, and not visitors, he added.
“Three bodies have been recovered from the debris of the landslide, while 17 are still missing after the shops were washed away. These include members of two Nepali families who worked as porters and did small jobs at a tea stall,” he said. Police said all three are males and their identity is yet to be ascertained.
“The search operation has been stopped at 6:30 pm due to darkness. The search operation will resume at 6:00 am Saturday,” he added.
The district administration said that they have identified 20 people that were washed away. Among the missing are at least five children, four of them under the age of 10.
The incident has, however, turned the lens back on safety precautions at the Kedarnath Dham, where between 300 and 400 shanties have mushroomed in Gaurikund, most built over precipitous landslide-prone slopes with the Mandakini flowing on one side. Forest and revenue officials that HT spoke to ascertain whether these small shops are either registered or have any clearances passed the buck to each other.
The landslide is 50 metres away from the controversial Char Dham all weather road, about which experts have raised multiple red flags. There has been concern about heavy engineering in an ecologically fragile area that has already shown evidence of causing instability in the mountains. Side railings and crash barriers, essential for driving safety, have already found themselves buried under debris on many stretches in both Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts. A note submitted by the Union government before the Supreme Court in November 2021 had said there are 125 locations vulnerable to landslides on the road.
Lalita Negi, spokesperson for SDRF, said that one of the teams was conducting a search operation at Kund Barrage, 2km downstream. “Rescue and search efforts are difficult due to rapid flow of water in the swollen Mandakini. Though boulders had stopped falling in the day, they can start at any point in because of the rains.”
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the Disaster Control Room in Dehradun on Friday morning and asked the concerned officials to speed up relief and rescue work. “Search operations are ongoing the relatives of those missing are being contacted. SDRF, district administration, and other teams are at the spot and the government and local administration are fully prepared to deal with any situation,” Dhami said.
Jitendra Verma, subdivisional magistrate, Ukhimath, said, “The area where the landslide incident occurred is in Gaurikund village and is a part of forest land according to the revenue records according to our understanding. Such makeshift tents and shelters are used for mules and horses, and the forest department conducts regular drives to remove such illegal structures.”
Inder Singh Negi, divisional forest officer Kedarnath wildlife sanctuary however said that the area where the incident occurred is likely revenue land. “The forest land begins from Gaurikund where the motorable road ends and pedestrian pilgrim track begins. But for a clearer picture, I have directed my range officer to inspect the area,” Negi said.
Experts said the mushrooming of shops has taken place despite Rudraprayag and Tehri Garhwal among the districts to have the highest landslide density according to a satellite based study of 147 vulnerable districts by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in March 2023. “The state government has shown an indifferent attitude towards the NRSC report. The state government should not have allowed construction of these shops in such landslide-prone areas along the Kedarnath track,” said Anoop Nautiyal, a Dehradun-based social activist.
Experts also said that it is clear that the pilgrim influx in Himalayan valleys that contain the Char Dham shrines, all over 10,000 feet, are making them increasingly ecologically vulnerable. There have already been two tragedies in the area over the past decade, when 5000 people were killed in Kedarnath in 2013 after a cloudburst, and in Chamoli in 2021 when 204 people died.
After the state government removed the cap on daily pilgrim influx on April 21, over 3.6 million pilgrims have visited Char Dham shrines this year including over 1.1 million to Kedarnath. Thus far, 177 people have been killed this year, excluding the three confirmed dead today, 86 of them on the Kedarnath. Overall in 2022, there were 44 lakh Char Dham pilgrims, expected to cross 50 lakh this year, up from 12 lakh in 2000.
“Several reports have cautioned the government to show restraint towards any anthropogenic activity in such disaster-prone areas but the government’s indifferent attitude is baffling resulting in such huge loss of life,” he said .
The rescue team engaged in the search operation includes 12 personnel of NDRF, 15 personnel of SDRF and 10 personnel of DDRF.
