The official death toll from flash flood-hit Dharali village is six, based on bodies found. But residents of Mukhba, a village on a hill 1km from Dharali that had a bird’s-eye view of Tuesday afternoon’s tragedy, say the toll has to be at least 200.
Rajiv Semwal says the deluge of mud, water and boulders smashed every structure either side of the Kheer Ganga, a stream that flows down the Sikantha peak.
“Nothing is left in the affected areas of Dharali. Young and old, women and children, everybody was buried under the debris in no time,” Rajiv said.
“A huge area, where over 50 buildings stood, turned into rubble in seconds. We had many friends of all ages there. At least 200 people were there. None seems to have survived.”
Dharali, in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, had about 400 residents. Some lived in the market area — set lower and devastated by the flash floods — and the rest in higher areas that were spared the destruction.
The Dharali market also had many hotels and shops that were washed away, along with tourists, hotel staff, shopkeepers and customers.
Mukhba residents — many of whom shot the videos of the deluge circulating on social media — wouldn’t hazard a guess how many of the victims were tourists and how many were residents.
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who on Thursday reiterated that “everything was destroyed in a locality of Dharali”, said 247 people had been rescued from “adjoining areas” and many of them admitted to hospital.
These “adjoining areas” are believed to be the upper reaches of Dharali village.
Harsil, 7km from Dharali and home to an army base, too was hit by a flash flood on Tuesday afternoon following the same cloudburst. Eight jawans are missing, a senior officer said.
Furquan Ahmad, a driver who lived in Dharali market, saved himself by running for the hills just in time with 25-odd others. He said many of those living in the upper reaches would have been in the market area on a normal day but rain had kept them indoors, saving their lives.
“The old Dharali village is on an elevated place; the Dharali market, where business establishments outnumbered homes, was below it,” he told reporters.
“But most residents of the old village were at home at the time because it was raining. They would have gone to work (in the market area) but for the rain.”
He said: “I saw about 25 people running away from the market towards the elevated areas and I too began running. We stopped after climbing a hillock and found that everything had been washed away below.”
Harish Semwal, another Mukhba resident, believes the death count can be higher than suggested by Rajiv. He said a “religious mela” was running at the Dharali market on Tuesday.
“Those devotees were in addition to those residing there,” he said.
Harish added: “I had many personal friends there. It was a lively and happening marketplace, with so many people on the streets every day. Now it looks like a desert. There is nothing but water, mud and boulders.”
Parvati Semwal — a woman from Mukhba where Semwal is a common surname — said the market had “about 20 hotels, an equal number of homestays and 10 restaurants besides small shops and houses”.
She said businessmen from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh had built several of the hotels, and Gujarati businesses had erected about 15 new structures, including hotels, over the past few years.
“They attracted a large number of tourists from Gujarat and Maharashtra,” she said. “Dharali’s economy was picking up but everything is now buried under the slush.”
Rescue efforts
An army rescue team from Uttarkashi, led by Lieutenant General Anindya Sengupta, has reached Harsil but is yet to establish a road communication with Dharali.
“We are trying to restore connectivity with Dharali as soon as possible and start searching for people who are missing there,” Sengupta said.
“A flash flood hit our camp in Harsil, too, on Tuesday. We lost eight jawans but have not yet found their bodies.”
A team from the National Disaster Response Force was able to reach the upper reaches of Dharali from the opposite direction, where some road links seem to have survived.
The stranded residents were taken to a helipad some 35km away — apparently by road — and then flown to Uttarkashi town or Dehradun.
“We had recovered five bodies till Wednesday and one more was recovered today (by the NDRF). We can confirm six deaths so far,” Uttarkashi district magistrate Prashant Arya said. None of the bodies has been identified.
The state disaster management authority said the flash floods had damaged about 30km of roads and many bridges within a 20km radius of Dharali.
It said it had rescued over 300 stranded tourists: 131 from Gujarat, 123 from Maharashtra, 21 from Madhya Pradesh, 12 from Uttar Pradesh, 7 from Delhi, 6 from Rajasthan, 5 from Karnataka, 3 from Telangana and 1 from Punjab.
“This included 135 tourists stuck in Harsil. We sent 100 of them safely to Uttarkashi and 35 to Dehradun,” it said.