BANGALORE: Around 80-100 of the 1,200 people from Karnataka stranded in Uttarakhand, started their journey back on Friday. They were being taken to New Delhi, enroute to Bangalore. 

Speaking to TOI from Rishikesh, DIG (internal security) Hemanth Nimbalkar, who is part of the three-member official team overseeing rescue operations, said evacuating people from Badrinath was taking some time. Of the 1,500 stranded there, 120 are from Karnataka.

Information minister Santosh Lad, who reached Rishikesh on Friday morning accompanied by Nimbalkar, met Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna. The minister handed over a cheque of Rs 5 crore to the CM on behalf of Karnataka. 

"We requested the Uttarakhand CM to increase the frequency of helicopters to airlift the stranded people. As of now, seven choppers were operating, there will be 10 from Saturday,'' Nimbalkar said. 

Explaining the difficulty in the logistics of airlifting people, he said each chopper can do five sorties a day, carrying 5-10 persons on each trip. The journey time was one-and-a-half hours. "There are 1,500 people waiting to be airlifted. The weather is bad and operations can be carried out for five hours in a day,'' Nimbalkar said. 

His major concern was that most of the people from Karnataka were senior citizens. They weren't coming out of the ashrams where they're put up, while people from other states were standing in queues for the helicopters. 

He admitted there were complaints that the food being airdropped was being picked up by locals, who were later selling it at a premium to pilgrims. A bottle of water was being sold at Rs 100. "The minister has brought all this to the notice of the Uttarakhand CM,'' Nimbalkar said. 

The health and family welfare department has deputed three medical teams comprising two doctors in each team to flood-hit areas of Uttarakhand -- Dr Vagish S (9986618116), Sanjeev Kumar B L (9980390518), Ravindra T (9481320424), Channakeshav S P (9741045565), Shashidhar B (9632313382), Dayananda (9449683898). "The doctors will stay in the flood-hit regions till June 30 and report to the resident commissioner in New Delhi," health minister UT Khader said. 

Many survivors who escaped death by a whisker are returning home, many are still stranded, and others are untraceable. It's the same story across Karnataka, as people wait for their loved ones. 

Torn apart by cloudburst 

Mandya: Seventeen members of two families, including four children from Maddur town, went missing in Uttarakhand after floods ravaged the pilgrim towns. The two families left on June 12 to Kedarnath and Badrinath. The lone survivor of the team Sitaramu, a senior journalist, contacted his son Raghavendra and informed that he was rescued by paramilitary personnel and was lodged in a temporary rehabilitation centre in Kedarnath. 

Among those missing are Sitaramu's wife Neela, his elder brother MG Nagaraju Rao, the latter's wife Suma, their daughter Nagashree, her husband and Sitaramu's four grandchildren. Narrating his experience, Sitaramu said they were going to Kedarnath temple in a trolley. "All of a sudden, there were flash floods and many people, including my family members, ran helter-skelter. I was rescued by paramilitary personnel after waiting for many hours. I'm completely fatigued and distressed over my missing family,'' he added. 

Stranded in badrinath 

Bijapur: The 16-member Katti family is still stranded in Badrinath, though the local Bijapur administration informed the rescue team after reading about them in the media. According to Ravi Katti in Bijapur, the family is worried as some of the members in the group were diabetic and had BP problems. They had carried medicine to last till June 20, and this was exhausted. 

Ravi said even if the government initiates rescue operations, it would take them nearly five days, by which time the health condition of some of the pilgrims would deteriorate. 

No word on senior citizens 

Gulbarga: Two elderly couples from Gulbarga city, Shyamsundar Jahagirdar, 65, and wife Radha, 60, and Ananth Bakshi, 61, and wife Geetha, 57, who went to Kedarnath, haven't got in touch with their families her for four days. Their mobile phones are not reachable and Jahagirdar's family is worried as he is diabetic. 

Waiting for rescue team 

Tumkur: A private company executive Uday Upadhya, his wife Uma and son Varun, who were travelling to Kashi, Hardwar and Rishikesh, were stopped 7km north of Kashi and are now camping in Shivananda ashram of Ganeshpur in Uttarkashi. Uday said officials from Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi had contacted him to enquire about food and shelter. "They aren't talking of evacuating us. We want to just get back to Karnataka and have shelved plans of going anywhere else,'' Upadhya said. 

Safe and sound 

Mangalore: All pilgrims from Mangalore are safe at Gowrikund, about 14km from Kedarnath temple. The team, comprising 47 tourists and seven workers of the tour operators, are staying in the house of their hotel owner. The team had shifted to the owner's house as the hotel is located on the banks of the river. City-based Nirmala Travels had arranged the tour. They had left Mangalore in two batches on June 5 and 7.

Source: The Times of India, DT. June 22, 2013.