Dehradun/Rudraprayag, Sep 1: A landslide on the Kedarnath route early Monday killed two pilgrims and left six injured while heavy rain continued to lash various parts of Uttarakhand, leading to temporary suspension of the Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib pilgrimages till September 5, officials said.
The landslide occurred at 7:34 am near Munkatiya between Sonprayag and Gaurikund on the Kedarnath route.
Debris carrying rocks and boulders fell from the hillside and hit a moving vehicle, killing two passengers and leaving six others injured, Rudraprayag Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar said.
The deceased have been identified as Rita (30) and Chandra Singh (68) from Barkot in Uttarkashi district. The injured included Mohit Chauhan, Naveen Singh Rawat, Pratibha, Mamata, Rajeshwari and Pankaj, all from the same district, Rajwar said, adding that four of them were referred to a higher facility for treatment.
In view of the heavy rain, the Char Dham Yatra and the pilgrimage to the Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib have been put on hold till September 5, Garhwal Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey said.
Pandey appealed to the pilgrims not to set out on the pilgrimage routes during this period and follow the advisories issued by the administration from time to time. The pilgrimage will resume once the weather becomes normal and the roads are completely safe, Pandey said.
By 8 am on Monday, Banbasa in Champawat district received 256.4 mm of rain, followed by Khatima (181 mm), Tanakpur (174 mm), Bastia (170 mm), Koti (152 mm), Chakrata (146 mm), Purola (120 mm), and Devidhura (129 mm), the Central Water Commission (CWC) said in a bulletin while sharing rainfall data for the past 24 hours.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has sounded a red alert for ‘heavy’ to ‘very heavy’ rain in nine districts, including Dehradun, Haridwar, Uttarkashi, Tehri, Pauri, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital, Champawat and Bageshwar.
The heavy rain has led to an increase in the water level in rivers running through the state.
Rivers Yamuna at Kathnaur and Kamla at Purola in Uttarkashi, as well as Shalini in Dehradun and Aglar in Tehri, are flowing above the danger mark, the CWC bulletin said.
The Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers in Rudraprayag have crossed the warning mark, flowing at 626.35 metres and 625.05 metres, respectively, which are very close to the danger level, the CWC said.
The water level in the Ganga has also risen in both Haridwar and Rishikesh, with the administration making public announcements asking people not to go near the banks of the river.
“The water level in the Ganga is rising in the wake of incessant rain. Don’t visit the ghats. Stay alert and safe,” the announcement said.
Similar announcements were made in Rudraprayag district, where the Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers are in spate.
Heavy rain has triggered a string of natural disasters in Uttarakhand in the past month, claiming at least 10 lives and leaving many missing.
Two people were killed in separate rain-related incidents in Tehri and Pithoragarh districts on Sunday.
Six people were killed while 11 went missing after heavy rain and a series of cloudbursts wreaked havoc in various districts of Uttarakhand on August 29, triggering landslides, damaging houses, and leaving people buried under mounds of rubble.
Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri, and Bageshwar districts bore the brunt of the natural calamity, which came close on the heels of the Tharali disaster on August 23 that killed a woman and left another missing.
Before the tragedy in Tharali in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand witnessed massive devastation on August 5 when a flash flood in the Kheer Ganga river demolished nearly half of Dharali, a key stopover on the Gangotri route dotted with hotels and homestays.
The flash flood also hit an Army camp in neighbouring Harsil. Sixty-nine people missing since the disaster are yet to be traced. (PTI)
