Unable to reach Srinagar airport, 16 trekkers ride to Leh 400 km away

A team of 16 trekkers from Bangalore, which had gone to the Great Lakes Trek in Kashmir, is said to be safe. Instead of travelling 10 km from Hotel Castle (where they were stranded for a week) to the Srinagar airport, the trekkers hired taxis to reach Leh from where they will fly to New Delhi. 

There were a total of 25 trekkers. Of them, nine quickly reached the Srinagar airport, but the rest got stranded. Tanzeen Ahmed, a 27-year-old IT professional, is one of them. He had left Bangalore on August 30 and was to return on September 7. 

His sister Tayyaba told Deccan Herald from Sweden: “My parents in Bangalore and I here in Sweden have been trying to contact Tanzeen and other members of the group ever since we heard about the floods. We also contacted Indiahikes, the group which organised the trek. It could not reach them either. 

“On Friday morning, we got in touch with one member of the group, Usaid, who said that they had been rescued from the hotel and decided to go to Leh and fly out of there. They decided to do so because the 10-km road to the airport is inaccessible and there are many people waiting at the airport for long to go home.” 

Nitesh Patil, an IAS officer in the State Emergency Operation Centre, which is under the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, said that many stranded people were going for such options so they could get of Srinagar at the earliest. 

“They do not mind travelling 400 km to reach safer places,” Nitesh Patil said.

Help at hand

Another reason the group chose Leh is because there is another team of trekkers there, according to Prema Balasubramanian, from the human resource section at Indiahikes. 

There are two trek leaders to take care of the 16-member group. Another group of trekkers, which is familiar with the terrain, is helping the Armed forces in the rescue efforts.