Mandya, July 22, 2013: They are just hoping against hope that the 13 members of their family would return.

If their wish turns out to be true, it would certainly be a miracle as these pilgrims had gone missing on June 16 from Gaurikund in Uttarakhand in the deadliest flash floods and landslips the State had ever witnessed.

“I believe they will return. They are safe somewhere in the hilly region,” argues M.G. Sitharam, their relative, who resides at Pete Beedhi in Maddur.

Eighteen members of his family, spanning three generations, had flown from Bangalore to Delhi on June 13 and were known to have been stranded at Gaurikund on June 16.

Thanks to the rescue operations launched by the Uttarakhand government, five of them were rescued and airlifted by the security forces. They waited for sometime for other family members to be traced, but they had to return home. Even after 35 days, the fate of the other 13 persons, whose age range from 4 to 65, remains unknown.

The house of Mr. Sitharam in Maddur is enveloped in a pall of gloom. There have been many visitors who try to console the surviving family members.

Mr. Sitharam’s wife Leela (55), his brothers and their children are among the missing persons. The other missing persons are M.G. Nagaraj Rao (65), his wife Suma (57), their daughter Nagashree (33); Nagashree’s sons Amit Chandra (6) and Atul Chandra (4); Mr. Nagaraja Rao’s sister Geethamani (54), her husband Vasanth Kumar (61); M.G. Gururaj Rao (59) and wife Uma (52); M.G. Ramesh Rao (50), his wife Lakshmi (38), and their son Anirudh (9).

Armed with photographs, posters and banners displaying their photos and other details of missing persons, the family members took up their own search in Kedarnath and Gaurikund. They carried out a door-to-door search with a plea to pass on any information about the missing persons to them. But their efforts have so far yielded no results, rues Narasimha Murthy of Koppa village anther relative.

They would take up another search operation soon.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 22, 2013.