June 18: Three thousand pilgrims huddled in an Uttarakhand village on the way to Kedarnath, stranded in their journey of faith under the combined elemental assault of rain and landslip, as the toll surged past 80 in the monsoon-ravaged north.

In Himachal Pradesh, chief minister Virbhadra Singh was airlifted from Sangla valley this morning along with some dozen tourists, as the weather eased this morning but nearly 2,000 remained stuck at different places, chief secretary Sudripto Roy said in state capital Shimla.

Officials said over 80 people had died in the north under the combined elemental assault of cloudbursts, flash floods and rain-triggered landslides amid fears that the toll could easily cross 100.

They said some 70,000 pilgrims were stranded in Uttarakhand, but the disaster's ugliest face was in areas about 14km from the 11,000ft Kedarnath temple, one of the four points on the pilgrim route that also includes Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.

Over a hundred thousand pilgrims from across the country were on their way to these four Himalayan destinations when the rains struck. Most of the pilgrims are stranded in Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi districts.

Uttarakhand relief minister Yashpal Arya said some 25,000 pilgrims had been left stranded in Rudraprayag district since Sunday night. “Three thousand of them have been living in village Gauri near Gaurikund, 14km from Kedarnath, for the past two days.”

The Uttarakhand government officials said they had no idea about the state-wise break-up of stranded pilgrims. “It is time to rescue whoever is in distress, whichever state he is from,” said Uttarakhand relief minister Yashpal Arya, who went on an aerial survey of the disaster and faced local protests over lack of relief when he landed in Uttarkashi.

Officials said two rivers near Kedarnath and Gaurikund — Alakananda and Mandakini — were overflowing. A part of the Gaurikund bazaar is under water, so are several nearby villages.

Along this stretch, 12 hanging bridges for pedestrians and three bridges for vehicles have gone under water. A helicopter that tried to rescue affected villagers near Badrinath on June 17 morning was washed away as soon as it landed.

A PTI report said a portion of the Kedarnath shrine compound had been washed away. “We have received some reports that a portion of the temple compound has been washed away. However, there has been no damage to the temple. Since it is not possible to reach there, the exact assessment of the damage cannot be ascertained. It is very difficult to get real-time information from the temple as communication links have been broken,” Ansuya Singh Negi, officer on special duty, Shri Badrinath Shri Kedarnath Temple Committee, told PTI over phone.

Agency reports said the overall toll climbed to 81 today in northern India while thousands have been displaced in Uttar Pradesh, where several rivers are in spate. Four persons died in the state in rain-related incidents.

In Himachal, chief secretary Sudripto Roy said Virbhadra Singh, who had been stuck in Sangla valley in Kinnaur for three days, was airlifted along with 15 ailing and stranded tourists.

The chief minister, along with his security staff, was airlifted in a private helicopter at 8.40am.