Flood disaster: over 3,000 still stranded as rain hampers rescue ops

Over 3,000 people are still stranded in the flood-devastated mountain regions of Uttarakhand, as the search and rescue operations by various agencies involved, including the armed and paramilitary forces, entered their 16th day today.

It is now feared that the actual number of the dead will never be known, though the casualty figure being recently bandied about is 10,000.

With the worst-affected Kedarnath district being declared fully evacuated, the focus is now Badrinath, where around 900 people, mostly pilgrims, remain stranded in grim conditions. Long spells of bad weather, including today, continue to hinder the rescue operations.

Despite bad weather at places including Dehradun, helicopter operations began this morning in Chamoli district to evacuate about 300 pilgrims and 600 locals from Badrinath shrine to Joshimath from where they will be brought further down by road.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahaguna on Sunday said that more than 1,300 villages remain cut off by road and over 3,000 people are still missing.

Bahaguna also said that a team of 200 people, consisting of officials of various departments, including police, health, animal husbandry experts and sanitation, are being rushed to Kedarnath to collect DNA samples of bodies before the mass cremations.

Some of the medical experts sent to Kedarnath to take DNA samples returned after falling sick.

With human bodies lying all over the area, the air is thick with a foul stench, making it difficult for those sent to clear the debris stay there for long.

"The frequently changing weather with intermittent rains is another hurdle. We are going about the cremation process slowly," Deputy Inspector General Sanjay Gunjyal, who is supervising the exercise, said.

Meanwhile, the chief secretaries of various states concerned have been asked to verify the list of people from their states and if the lost people are not traced in a month they will be declared dead.

The union health ministry said that no outbreak of any water, food or air-borne disease has been reported from flood-affected areas so far. The ministry also said that teams have been sent to all 13 districts of the state to monitor the situation.

Nearly 1,489 pilgrims were on Sunday taken to safety from Badrinath - 874 by air and 615 by road, an Uttarakhand government official said.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has put the figures at 1,500 stranded and 1,800 missing, though it admits the numbers could be much higher.

Close to 1.1 lakh people have been rescued so far.