Title - Live: Army begins evacuation from Jangalchetti

1:35 pm: Army begins evacuation of people trapped near Kedarnath at Jangalchetti

NDTV reports that the army has begun evacuating people slowly from the Jangalchetti area where army teams had to be airdropped in order to get access to around 1000 pilgrims who were trapped there.

The army has made a makeshift helipad which is being used presently to evacuate people, the channel reported.

12:35 pm: Army says they will ensure all flood affected will be taken to safety

ANI reports that Lt General Anil Chait has said that they have built many small bridges to transport people to safety yesterday.

“The road link from Uttarkashi to Harsil is open. Today already 250 people have used it,” Chait was quoted as saying by ANI.

He said that the disaster in Uttarakhand was spread over 40,000 square kilometres and presently there were 8500 army personnel on the ground assisting in rescue efforts.

11: 30 am: 550 deaths so far,  Shinde says rescue ops taking place on war footing

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is in Uttarakhand today, said various rescue teams were working to provide relief to the thousands of people who are still stranded in various parts of the state.

“Despite bad weather army, NDRF, ITBP teams are landing and conducting rescue operations…Operations are on a war footing,” Shinde told reporters.

As per reports they had received about 200 people were stuck in Jangalchetti, near Gaurikund, and rescue teams were presently working to ensure food is “somehow provided to them”, Shinde said.

The Home Minister said that they had recorded 550 deaths in the state till yesterday, 392 people were reported  injured and 334 people are still missing.

Describing the widespread damage in the state, Shinde said 1,751 houses, 147 bridges and 1307 roads have been damaged in the floods.

Shinde said that 73, 000 people have been taken to safety so far  and an additional 30,000-32,000 still stranded.

“We are hopeful of evacuating all people in the next two days,” he said.

The minister brushed aside criticism that the disaster was man-made.

“I don’t think it is a man-made disaster. There have been two cloud bursts. How can that be called a man-made disaster,” he said.

He also said that given the ongoing rescue efforts and weather conditions it was not advisable for any political leaders to carry out aerial surveys of the areas affected by the disaster.

“Let the police and army work professionally. We should not disturb them right now,” Shinde said.

He said that if he was unable to travel to affected areas then that should apply to other leaders as well.

The minister promised all the funds needed to carry out relief operations.

“We are willing to provide as much funds are needed, for the Uttarakhand flood relief,” he said.

11: 10 am: Angry villagers block road

Villagers angry about the damage caused by extensive flooding and the lack of relief have reportedly blocked the road linking Barkot and Yamunotri, said CNN-IBN.

11:00 am: Rescue ops to continue even if weather worsens, says Army official

An Indian Army official has said that they are prepared to carry out rescue operations even in the event that the weather worsens over the next 24 hours.

“Despite inclement weather ground operations will continue,” Brigadier Uma Maheshwar told CNN-IBN.

He said that the army group that had found the around 1000 pilgrims near Gaurikund were providing them with food and water.

However, he said that transporting them out of the location would be difficult given that the terrain was extemely difficult and only people with training in mountain climbing would be able to cope with it.

11:00 am: ITBP says rescue over next 24 hours will be crucial

A spokesperson for the Indo-Tibetan Border Patrol said that the next 24 hours would be critical to carry out rescue operations given that that the state could see more rains after that.

In an interview with ANI, Deepak Pandey of the ITBP highlighted the difficulties the rescue teams are facing. He said that the ITBP had built a bridge yesterday which they used to rescue people, but it was damaged again last night and they are rebuilding it today.

10:30 am: Army starts dropping paratroopers for rescue ops

In a video that they’ve just uploaded, the Army has shown paratroopers being dropped in Uttarakhand to assist in rescue operations.


09:00 am: Army finds 1000 people stranded near Gaurikund

The Indian Army rescue team has finally made contact with a group of around 1000 people who were stranded between the pilgrimage site of Gaurikund, reports CNN-IBN.

The group of people have been located between Gaurikund and Ram Bada and ropeways are being used to help evacuate the able bodied among the people.

However, given that there are no roads and the terrain is a difficult to negotiate the evacuation will be a slow process.

As there is no helipad near the location the people will be forced to trek down to a lower location from where they can be evacuated, an army spokesperson told the channel.