Uttarakhand floods: Rescuers race against time to find people buried under 15 ft debris

To the rescuers, it was reminiscent of the Silkyara tragedy where 41 labourers were trapped in a tunnel when a massive landslide buried the tunnel in November 2023.

Lucknow: A 15-20 ft deep debris spread over the field poses a huge challenge for rescue operations at Dharali, which was hit by flash floods on Tuesday following a cloudburst that left six people dead and many missing.

The rescuers were reminded of the Silkyara tragedy where 41 labourers were trapped in a tunnel when a massive landslide hit in November 2023.

Experts from abroad were called in to remove the debris and rescue the labourers.

But, the challenges in Dharali were of a different nature. The experts say that the techniques adopted at Silkyara might not prove to be useful at Dharali.

They feel that the trapped people can be brought out by digging with the help of labourers and machines. However, it may take a lot of time.

Reports said that special teams from the Army have been deployed with ground penetrating radars to trace the trapped people.

Meanwhile rescue operations continued on Saturday with choppers taking the others to safer locations. More than 200 people were brought to safer locations from Harshil and Matli, sources said.

So far more than 729 people were taken to safer places from Harshil, Gangotri, Matli and other nearby places.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh to the people, whose houses were completely damaged in the tragedy.

Dharali, which is 20 kilometres from Gangotri, a famous Hindu pilgrimage, was hit by flash flood following a cloudburst, on Tuesday.

A large number of houses in the village were swept away by the massive wave of water. Videos of the incident have gone viral on social media platforms.