Bharat Singh tries to contact his family in Dharali for the last 50 hours. The 52-year-old was in Gaganani, about 30 km from Dharali, when the lightning floods merge the picturesque village in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand.
“The bridge collapsed after the disaster and I could not return. The rescue teams brought me to the district headquarters and since then I have been trying to get information about my wife, children and mother, but without success,” he said.
Mr. Singh scanned the rehabilitation centers established by the government, where people are still coming in various places in the district to see if there is someone from his family. He often visited the helPs and asked officials to go to the village.
Hundreds as Mr. Singh have anxious, with painful waiting for society, because their family members remain unexplained. Rescue teams that saved 238 people from different places in the district and sent them to safe places on Thursday, racing against time, and sometimes fighting against unfavorable weather conditions to find the survivors of the flattened village.
Phones and Internet services are unavailable with damage to communication towers. Power supply on the disaster site has been reduced since the incident.
Beea Khatri, 47, who lives in Uttarkashi, has achieved a district headquarters, where the main Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami camp, asking for the finding of his brothers and older parents who lived in the village affected by disaster.
She couldn’t control her tears when the chief ministers told her that Power Corporation took over the generator to restore the supply of electricity in Dharal, and even a temporary communication facility would be set up. “The only thing I wish is to hear the word from my mother that she is alive and safe,” said Mrs. Beea.
Leakage
In the middle of a friend, the Balwant Murari family, who lived about 150 km in another village, she was relieved when she got a call on Wednesday evening. On the other side of the phone was Mr. Murari, one of the people who were seen in front of the car in Dharali when the flood hit the village. The video was made by local Mukhba, about 3 km from Dharali. Mr. Murari remembered a few seconds of devastation that developed against him without warning.
“I work at the Shiv Krip Hotel. I was there with about 15 of my colleagues when the lightning flood hit the village. We heard people screaming for help and we also reached the hotel. We ran in front of the car that washed in the floods, but we all survived miraculous,” he said.
Sohan Panwar, another hotel worker, said he urged an older woman, the only guest at the Shivalik hotel to run.
“I don’t think she could understand what I was saying. I never turned to check her. Everything I know is that both hotels were destroyed. I saw a group of six to seven boys standing in a tea stand,” he remembered.
On Thursday, the rescue efforts chose the pace with the weather cleaning. Teams of the Indian Army, ITBP and the forces of response to state disasters are on the ground and drones help them find stuck individuals in inaccessible areas. Two Helpads in Harsil and Nelong are functional, allowing rapid induction of soldiers and evacuation of victims.
“With Multiple Road Breaches Reported at Bartwari, Linchigad, Gangrani and Near Dharali, Chinook and Mi-17 Helicopters Are Positioned in Dehradun for Airlift Operations, While an Ad-Hoc Aviation Base Is Being And Five Civil Helicopters Operating from Sahastraradhara Continue to Augment Efforts, Leading to the rescue of 70 civilians, ”he said from the Indian Army.
Seventeen people were transported to higher medical centers, including 10 of the Indian Army.
Published – August 7, 2025 22:00
