Floods in Uttarakhand kill dozens, rescue efforts hit

More than a dozen helicopters have been deployed in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh for relief and rescue operations in the monsoon-ravaged two hill states and all stranded people are expected to be evacuated soon.
Army personnel carrying out relief operations in flood-hit Chamoli district. 

 

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna visits a flood-hit area in Dehradun. (PTI)

Rain fury today claimed 11 more lives in the north, taking the toll to 73, even as 71,440 pilgrims bound for the Himalayan shrines remained stranded in monsoon-ravaged Uttarakhand apart from 1700 people stuck in Himachal Pradesh. 

 

Uttarakhand has borne the brunt. At least 30 people have died and floods have washed away four hundred roads, scores of telephone towers, vehicles and houses as well as a helicopter and left some 57,000 pilgrims to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri stranded. The Army has been called in to rescue them as well as local villagers.
Houses are submerged as trucks flow in flood waters of the Bhagirathi River in Shrinagar district in Uttarakhand.