Drones at service for Char Dham yatra

The deaths during the Kedarnath pilgrimage visit in 2022 showed an unusual rise leading to 120 deaths in just 27 days

Following a sharp spike in deaths along the Kedarnath pilgrimage route last year, the Union health ministry has decided to enhance health and emergency services along the Char Dham route with a network of ambulances, stroke vans, and drones carrying emergency medicines.

The Char Dham annual pilgrimage that draws lakhs of tourists to Uttarakhand in each summer involves visiting four shrines in Garhwal Himalayas – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri – each located at an altitude of more than 10,000 ft.

The deaths during the Kedarnath pilgrimage visit in 2022 – opened after a two year Covid-break - showed an unusual rise leading to 120 deaths in just 27 days.

“This mortality is not at par with the previous years’ records which had 90, 102 and 112 deaths in the 6-month travel window for the years 2019, 2018, and 2017, respectively. Such an acute unexpected rise in deaths is concerning and has invited medical and political attention,” doctors from Government Doon Medical College, Dehradun reported in a medical journal.

To prevent a recurrence, the Union Health Ministry and Uttarakhand government said they would improve the healthcare and emergency services along the route and employ post-graduate medical students to look after those who would have fallen sick. This year’s pilgrimage will start by late April.

“A strong network of advanced ambulances and stroke vans is planned to ensure that stroke management and treatment can start on the way to the health facility. These ambulances will be stationed at different points on the yatra route,” Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said after a meeting with his Uttarakhand counterpart Dhan Singh Rawat.

Post Graduate students from across the country are proposed to be deployed as first responders. “The experience will also act as a skilling and capacity building exercise for the PG students”, Mandaviya said.

In addition, drones will be used to provide emergency medicines in the higher elevation with recent experiments demonstrating the utlity of the unmanned aerial vehicles to ferry medicines to far-flung areas. AIIMS-Rishikesh has also started a drone service to deliver and pick medicines.

“A strong referral back end system is being developed with AIIMS Rishikesh, Doon Medical College and Srinagar Medical Colleges acting as tertiary nodes for specialist care. This shall provide an end-to-end clinical treatment for pilgrims’ health," he said.

The doctors who reported last year’s death spike during Kedarnath pilgrimage said with three waves of Covid-19, the majority of the population that made the trip last year had a Covid-19 infection in some form and was subject to post-Covid changes to the cardiorespiratory system. More than 45 lakh people made the Char Dham trip last year.