Hyderabad, June 22, 2013: A group of 120 pilgrims, most of them from Karnataka, continue to remain stranded in Badrinath for the past two days without food or water.

The group comprises mostly elder people over 50 years of age, and includes a cardiac patient named Tara. Twenty of them are from Andhra Pradesh, and the rest from various parts of Karnataka such as Bangalore, Hubli, Mysore and Gulbarga. They all booked their travel through Raghavendra Tours and Travels, Kacheguda, and left for the pilgrimage by train. With officials and media more concerned about Kedarnath, which bore the maximum brunt, those stranded in Badrinath have nowhere to go as of now. Large amounts of food they carried along got exhausted two days ago, they were left high and dry in an unknown place.

Though helicopters have been engaged to carry them to safer places, only five or six were being shifted per sortie, which delays the matters further. With no medicines available, the senior citizens in the group were in a precarious condition and need help desperately, informed Sudha Joshi from Raghavendra Tours and Travels.

Source: The Hindu