Uttarkashi cloudburst | 'A nightmare': Eyewitnesses who saw disaster happening in Dharali in shock

Dharali: A group of village women sits in mournful silence on a railing on the edge of Mukhba village that overlooks the scene of destruction in Dharali about 1.5 km down the road.

They saw the tragedy unfolding in front of them as huge masses of slush rushed down the slopes to demolish more than half of Dharali village, razing buildings to the ground and sweeping away people running to save their lives.

The glum expression on their faces is enough to tell how sad they are about the loss of lives and the destruction caused in the village they know so well.

They look in disbelief over the expanse of rubble under which lies buried 70 to 90 per cent of the picturesque and lively village which was intact until Tuesday afternoon when the disaster struck.

Taken unawares by the tragedy, people cried for help but everything was over within seconds barely allowing anyone to do anything for them.

"We couldn't do anything. All we did was shout and whistle to alert people. We kept only shouting. Dharali is a neighbouring village. We knew almost everyone there. Only god knows what happened to them," said Asha Semwal.

"People down there were crying help... help but we couldn't do anything. Some people lost their entire families. It was like a nightmare. Everything was shining in the morning and by afternoon it was all gone," Nisha Semwal from another neighbouring village Markandeya told PTI videos.

The overwhelming tragedy has left another resident of Mukhba village Sulochana Devi dumbstruck.

"I am speechless. I only appeal to the government to help the affected people", she said.

Many of the locals said the number of missing people must not be less than 150.

"There were local villagers, labourers from Nepal and Bihar working at the under-construction hotels as well as tourists in Dharali bazar when the disaster struck. Their number would not have been less than 150," a man in the village said.

According to a priest in Mukhba, "We whistled to alert people but it was not an ordinary flood. It was a deluge. Bihari and Nepali labourers, tourists and locals were all there at the market. There were 20-25 big hotels which were demolished. The 500-year-old Kalp Kedar temple was also buried." Jairaj, an under graduate student from Uttarkashi in Mukhba, said his mother first saw the deluge coming and alerted him. He rushed to a point from where the entire scene was visible.

"There were at least 25-30 people outside the structures in Dharali market at the time. I don't know how many were there inside over a dozen hotels which were razed to the ground. I whistled and whistled to alert people about the approaching disaster but could not do much as the mudslide came rushing and in a jiffy everything was over," Jairaj said.

"Dharali has a population of 400. At the time of the incident some were at the market, some at the Hardoodh fair in the village and some at their homes as it was lunch time. There were tourists from outside staying at the hotels," Jaivir Negi, who works at a hotel, said.

Suresh Semwal, secretary of the Gangotri temple committee, said "The number of the missing must be somewhere between 50 to 100. The disaster must have caused a loss of at least Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore in Dharali." Sanjay Singh Panwar, who owned a hotel named Himgiri in Dharali, said it was demolished in the deluge.

"The flood came at a speed of at least 500 kmph. It didn't allow people time to understand what was happening and where they should run to save their lives," he said.