Uttarkashi tragedy- one body recovered, 4 dead so far: more than 50 missing including 11 jawans; more than 150 rescued, rescue operation underway

4 people have died due to cloudburst in Dharali village of Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand at around 1.45 pm on Tuesday. A dead body was recovered during the rescue-search operation on Wednesday morning. He is being identified.

More than 50 people are still missing. More than 150 people have been rescued since yesterday. SDRF, NDRF, ITBP and Army teams are engaged in rescue work.

On Wednesday morning, PM Modi spoke to Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami over the phone. After this, Dhami conducted an aerial survey of Dharali and other places. He also held a meeting with the officials regarding the rescue operation.

The market, houses, hotels of Dharali village, a major stop for Gangotri pilgrims, were washed away by the debris flowing from the mountains in the Kheer Ganga river, this destruction happened in just 34 seconds. 11 army personnel are missing in Harshil since the cloudburst.

Dharali is situated on a crack in the Himalayas, destroyed for the third time in 10 years

Clouds had burst on the mountain in Dharali village in 1864, 2013 and 2014. Due to this, Kheer Nala caused havoc. After all three disasters, geologists advised the state government to settle Dharali village somewhere else.

It was also told that Dharali is sitting on a time bomb in terms of disaster, but it was not shifted.

Senior geologist Prof. SP Sati tells…

Dharali is in the Main Central Thrust present in Trans Himalayas (above 4 thousand meters). This is a crack, which connects the main Himalayas to the Trans Himalayas. It is also a highly sensitive zone for earthquakes. The mountain from which the Kheer Ganga river comes is 6 thousand meters high, whenever there is a flood from there, it devastates Dharali.

About 6 months ago, a part of the mountain was breaking and falling into the Kheer river, but it got stuck. Probably this time the same part has broken and come down.

1500 year old Kalp Kedar temple also destroyed

The ancient Kalp Kedar Mahadev temple located in Dharali also got buried in the debris in the disaster. This 1500 year old temple located on the banks of Bhagirathi river is associated with the Panch Kedar tradition. It was the biggest center of faith of the local people.

Dharali 18 km away from Gangotri Dham

Dharali village is a small hill village located in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. This village is situated near Harshil valley, on the banks of Bhagirathi river. Dharali village is a major stop on the Gangotri Yatra. This is the last big village before Gangotri Dham, from where people stop for the difficult climb ahead. Pilgrims get accommodation and food facilities here.

It is 218 km from Dehradun and 18 km from Gangotri Dham. Till now it has not been revealed how many people were present here at the time of the disaster. The administration says that the damage is being assessed.

People were seen saving their lives in the video, debris accumulated up to 30 feet

Many videos of this disaster came out. In these, people were seen running here and there to save their lives. There was screaming all around. Those who were making videos of this were shouting and asking people to save themselves despite being at a distance from them. After the disaster, debris accumulated up to 30 feet in Dharali. Many shops in the market and nearby houses were razed to the ground.