New Delhi - SPA
Rescuers in India\'s flood-hit Uttarakhand state
worked Saturday to free more than 500 people stranded in the town of
Badrinath as efforts elsewhere turned to supplying cut-off villages
and recovering bodies, dpa reported.
Flash floods and landslides in the mountainous northern state that
began two weeks ago have left at least 800 people confirmed dead and
an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 missing.
Uttarakhand state Legislative Assembly Speaker Govind Singh
Kunjwal told reporters the death toll could exceed 10,000.
\"More than 1,000 reports have been filed with the police about
missing persons so far,\" said Puja Rawat, an official at the state\'s
disaster management unit. \"The process is ongoing and the numbers are
rising fast.\"
Thousands of people, including tourists and pilgrims, were
stranded in the state\'s higher elevations as floods and landslides
swept away roads and bridges and buried buildings.
More than 100,000 people have been rescued so far in operations by
air and foot over the past fortnight with local media reporting more
than 1,000 still stranded.
An estimated 550 people were stuck in Badrinath, a Hindu
pilgrimage site, Rawat said.
Rescue helicopters worked in spurts Saturday as bad weather
grounded the choppers for hours at a stretch.
Several roads were reopened in lower-lying areas, and food,
drinking water, medicine and other supplies were being sent to
inaccessible villages, officials said.
A shortage of grain and other essentials was reported in more than
600 villages in the northern districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli and
Uttarkashi, state-run Doordarshan television reported.
Clearing debris, identifying the dead and conducting mass
cremations to avoid epidemics was under way in the worst-hit
Kedarnath region.