Vellore, June 27, 2013: A group of 23 pilgrims from Tamil Nadu including eight from Vellore who went on an Adi Kailash and Om Parvat Yatra to the Himalayas and who had to give up the pilgrimage owing to the heavy floods in Uttarkhand returned to the base camp in Darchula after being brought to Sosa by an IAF helicopter on Wednesday.

The 23 pilgrims led by Swamy Bal Anand of Vallimalai Ashram in Vellore district, comprising eight from Vellore, 10 from Chennai, two each from Coimbatore and Hosur and one from Palakkad who left for the yatra on June 13 were stranded in Ghala for several days before they trekked to Sosa from where they were taken to Dharchula by helicopter, according to a spokesman of the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam Limited, Chennai which arranged the Yatra.

All the pilgrims were safe and their movements were being monitored by the tour organizer

Source: The Hindu, DT. June 27, 2013.