Death toll in Gaurikund cloudburst and landslide in Uttarakhand likely to cross 30

DEHRADUN: The death toll in the Gaurikund cloudburst and landslide disaster is expected to rise to over 30. State government sources have released a list of 10 more people missing and confirmed a total of 23 missing, while more than 10 members of the Nepali-origin community are also reported missing, apart from the government figures. Locals are calling it a disaster reminiscent of the Kedarnath tragedy of 2013.

Following the landslide disaster on Thursday, senior officials, including State Disaster Management Secretary Dr Ranjit Singh as special representative of the Chief Minister, visited the affected area of Gaurikund on Saturday. After taking stock of the situation, a high-level team directed the local administration to remove the temporary kiosks and stalls built there, after which 30 shops in the vicinity of the spot, including restaurants and small grocery stores, were removed.

Gora Bahadur, an eyewitness to the horrific night of the Gaurikund tragedy, whose younger brother Amar and seven of his family members were swept away in the disaster, told  over telephone from Gaurikund: “We know that my brother and his family are not alive. Our only demand to the administration and the government is to help us find their bodies so that they can be duly cremated. A total of 30 people are missing since this disaster, in which there is no hope of any survival.”