The rescue operation in flash flood-hit Dharali village of Uttarkashi district was officially concluded on Saturday, with at least 200 villagers and tourists still missing.

The Uttarakhand government has stopped short of saying that the missing are presumed dead, and its official death toll remains six, on the basis of bodies recovered.

A committee has been formed to prepare a rehabilitation plan for the survivors at Dharali, which saw houses, hotels, homestays, shops and offices in its lower reaches swept away by a torrent of mud, water and rocks on Tuesday afternoon.

“A large number of roads in the neighbourhood of the devastated village were damaged because of flash floods or landslides. It was very difficult to conduct the rescue operation but we did it somehow and reached the people with everything they needed,” chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said.

“We have completed the operation. Now I have set up a three-member committee that will submit a rehabilitation plan within a week.”

Dhami added: “Houses were destroyed also in two villages of Pauri Garhwal district the day after the Dharali deluge. We shall rehabilitate those villages too. We will pay a compensation of ₹5 lakh to those who have lost their houses and to the families of those who died.”

District magistrate Prashant Arya was quoted as saying: “The rescue operation was over after about 400 people, who were stranded in the (upper reaches of the) village and adjoining areas, were taken to safe places.”

But, he said, the search for those missing is continuing.“Rescue teams, including those from the army, are using ground-penetrating radar to look for people who might be buried (under the debris),” he said.

The deluge has left nothing standing in the Dharali market.

“Hundreds might be buried a few feet below where I’m standing,” Mahesh Kumar, who used to work at a homestay at Dharali market, told reporters on Saturday afternoon.

He described how he had survived.

“Here, people alert each other by whistling (a signal) if they sense any danger. Some tourists were having their lunch at the restaurant attached to the homestay. I heard people in Mukhba (a nearby village that overlooks Dharali), whistling and then turned to look at the Kheer Ganga,” he said.

“The nullah looked like a monster. I saw people running for the hills. I asked the tourists to leave their food and run with me. Unfortunately, they didn’t understand what I was saying.”

He added: “After climbing the hill, I looked back and saw that everything had been flattened at Dharali market. The tourists must be buried under the debris of the home where they were staying.”

He said some residents of the Dharali market area had survived because they were visiting the Someshwar Dev Temple on the hill. “A big fair is held there every year on August 4 and 5,” Kumar said.

Some 150 people from Dharali and adjoining villages have taken shelter in the temple, refusing to be evacuated to safer places.

“There is enough space for 150 people on the temple’s first floor. I cook rice, dal, vegetables and rotis for them. The government has provided us with food grains and other stuff,” Sushila Devi, whose house is on the hill, said.

She said a few houses in villages close to Dharali too had been damaged but no deaths were reported there.

“Some government officers are encouraging us to shift to Uttarkashi (town) or Dehradun but we have refused. The government must rebuild our houses. We are ready to live or die here,” said Manas Semwal, who was at the temple with his family when the flash flood struck following a cloudburst.