Rudraprayag: Many Kedarnath pilgrims were hit by landslide in Rudraprayag late on Monday evening, when a landslide occurred near Gaurikund, about a kilometer away from Sonprayag on the Kedarnath highway. Following this landslide, many pilgrims returning from Kedarnath shrine were buried under the debris.
Upon receiving the information, police, administration, SDRF, and NDRF teams promptly arrived at the scene. They conducted a joint rescue operation, during which three injured individuals were rescued late on Monday night. One person was found unconscious and was later declared dead by the doctors.
Rescue faced problems at night
As this landslide occurred due to the heavy rains in the Kedar Valley on Monday, bad weather and continuous falling of debris and stones at night hampered the rescue operations on Monday night. The rescue teams faced problems in carrying out relief and rescue and relief operations. Seeing these problems, rescue operations had to be stopped later. For the safety of pilgrims, the district police had completely stopped movement on this route after 6:30 pm.
Three people died after being buried under debris
On Tuesday morning, as the weather improved and debris and stones ceased falling, rescue teams resumed their operation. They discovered three individuals (two women and one man) in an unconscious state, who were later declared dead by doctors. During the ongoing rescue efforts, another woman was found unconscious and also declared dead which is not officially announced. This brings the death toll from the Gaurikund landslide accident to five. Additionally, three people were injured after being trapped under the debris.
Cloudburst incident on 31 July
Rain-induced landslides have badly hit the Kedarnath valley this monsoon season. A cloudburst incident happened on 31 July in Kedarnath valley which has severely damaged the trek route at 29 places. After 39 days of this disaster, this route was opened for small vehicles on Sunday to restore the traffic, but, this landslide again damaged the route temporarily halting the Kedarnath yatra.