Helicopters rescue people stranded by floods on key India pilgrim route

BHATWADI: Indian rescuers used helicopters on Thursday to pluck to safety people stranded by flood waters in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, two days after a sudden inundation and landslide killed four people, with more still missing.

With roads cleared as rain eased, rescue teams arrived in Dharali, where Tuesday’s wall of water had submerged in sludge homes and cars in the village on the route to the Hindu pilgrim town of Gangotri.

Helicopters were carrying to safety those who had been stranded, the state’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said in a post on X.

Dhami said the destruction was “massive” and that the number of missing persons was still being estimated.

“If the weather supports us then we will bring every single person by tomorrow,” he told Reuters, referring to rescue efforts.

Heavy rains, landslides hamper rescue efforts in northern Indian state, dozens missing

Authorities said about 400 people stuck in Gangotri were being rescued by air, with nine army personnel and seven civilians among the missing.

Relatives of missing people gathered at the helicopter base at Matli village, desperately searching for their loved ones.

Mandeep Panwar said he wanted to reach Dharali, where his brother ran a hotel and is among those missing since Tuesday.

“If you see the videos, ours was the first hotel to be hit by the deluge. I have not heard from my brother and he has been missing since,” Panwar said.

Communication links with rescuers and residents remained disrupted, as mobile telephone and electricity towers swept away by the floods have yet to be replaced, officials said.

Earlier, army rescuers used their hands, as well as machinery, to shift boulders from roads turned into muddy, gushing rivers, visuals showed. More than 225 army personnel were drafted into the rescue, their Northern Command said on X.

“We saw Dharali falling before our eyes,” said Anamika Mehra, a pilgrim headed for Gangotri when the flooding hit.

The hamlet of about 200 people in the state’s Uttarkashi district stands more than 1,150 metres (3,775 feet) above sea level on the climb to the temple town.

Uttarakhand is prone to floods and landslides, which some experts blame on climate change.