Landslides and flash floods have played havoc with the Chardham Yatra this year, killing scores of pilgrims and closing two of the four pilgrimage sites prematurely.

Devotees have been unable to visit Gangotri and Yamunotri in Uttarkashi since July-end, with roads and bridges ravaged by falling rocks and rampaging water. The government officially called the Yatras to these two sites off on Wednesday.

Pilgrimages to Kedarnath (Rudraprayag) and Badrinath (Chamoli) too had been suspended briefly early this month but resumed after several roads were repaired.

These Yatras — which take place from April-end to early November, before it begins snowing — were always managed by governments, but the BJP dispensations at the Centre and the hill state have turned them into a showpiece event.

They have widened 900km of roads as part of a continuing project and named it the Char Dham Highway to attract more pilgrims and buttress their own credentials for development and the promotion of the Hindu religion.

Ironically, scientists as well as many ordinary residents blame the government’s reckless pursuit of infrastructure projects, including the Char Dham Highway, for the increasing calamities in the geologically fragile mountains.

The deforestation and soil displacement caused by these projects trigger landslides, which in turn tend to turn the flash floods more dangerous, making it easier for swollen water bodies to breach natural barriers and sending down mud and boulders with the water.

A cloudburst-triggered flash flood, accompanied by a landslide, in Dharali, Uttarkashi, killed over 200 people on August 5. Most of them are believed to have been pilgrims from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Kerala.

“The increasing landslides have destroyed roads at more than 20 spots in Uttarkashi. Six bridges have collapsed there,” an official said.

Frequent landslides are also happening on the way to Kedarnath, between Sonprayag and Gaurikund, and in Kameda and Lambagad on the Badrinath Marg. Officials said fewer people were visiting the reopened Kedarnath and Badrinath, though they couldn’t cite figures.

“An estimated 130 landslides hit these four (pilgrimage) routes in July and August,” a tourism department official said, asking not tobe quoted.

Chopper demand

Government sources said that poor and middle-class pilgrims had mostly returned home and might try to complete the pilgrimage next year, but the rich have been enquiring about the situation every day.

“The disaster is an opportunity for the private aviation companies with licences to fly pilgrims to these four places. The helicopter service was discontinued because of bad weather but will resume (to Kedarnath and Badrinath) from September 15,” the tourism department official said.

The chopper service will conclude on October 18.

The service had been suspended on June 18 after two choppers crashed -- killing 10 pilgrims, 2 pilots and a local helper – and another two were forced into emergency landings, all between May 8 and June 15.

Raj Shah, operations manager with Rudraksh Aviation, has been quoted in the media as saying the fare for a trip to Kedarnath and Badrinath from Dehradun and back is ₹1.25 lakh.

“There will not be any change to the fare when we resume the service in the second phase,” he told reporters.

Sources said the fare was ₹2.3 lakh per passenger for chopper flights that covered all four pilgrimage sites when the Yatra season began this year. This was 25 per cent above last year’s rates, they added.

Blame the rain

Embattled chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who faces public anger over the increasing calamities and perceptions of poor rescue-and-relief efforts, has blamed the rain and spoken vaguely about a need to start “treatment of the hills on a large scale”.

“Many villages in Uttarkashi and Chamoli were washed away. Cracks have appeared in some buildings in Chamoli (because of subsidence). We need to make a concrete plan,” he said, without mentioning specifics.

State tourism minister Satpal Maharaj echoed him. “The rainfall has been more than normal this year, and so the landslides have increased,” he said.

He played down any danger to pilgrims, saying they “take stock of the weather before moving forward”.

Official figures suggest that 40 lakh pilgrims have visited the four sites since April 30, when the Chardham Yatra officially kicked off.

Kedarnath drew some 15 lakh devotees and Badrinath attracted 12.8 lakh; while 6.6 lakh and 5.8 lakh, respectively, visited Gangotri and Yamunotri. About 2.5 lakh people visited Hemkund Sahib in Chamoli district.

Some 47 lakh pilgrims made the Chardham Yatra in 2024, a figure that may prove hard to beat this year given two of the sites have been closed. The footfall was 55lakh in 2023. It remains unclear why the number fellso sharply last year.

Trip perils

Apart from calamities, the rigours of the pilgrimage too claim lives every year. All four sites are at altitudes above 3,000 metres, where oxygen levels drop by 21 per cent.

Health officials say that most of the deaths happen from “acute mountain sickness” that can lead to pulmonary and cerebral edema. Ailing people are advised against going on the Yatras.

About 200 pilgrims died during their journeys in Uttarakhand in 2023, the figure rising to 250 in 2024. Health department records show 170 pilgrim deaths by the end of July this year, without specifying the reasons.

The deaths in August are yet to be recorded, but will have to take into account the Dharali victims.

Chopper crashes have claimed at least 19 lives during the pilgrimage season since 2022.