[After the helicopter
dropped them off in Dehradun, Mr. Gopalakrishna and his wife searched
everywhere, but couldn’t find their children or fellow pilgrims. “We are
hopeful that they are there somewhere,” Ms. Janaki said in a weak, low voice.]
By Hari Kumar
 |
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
Posters of people who went missing during the flash floods, pasted on a gate in Dehradun,
Uttarakhand, on Wednesday.
|
UTTARAKHAND—A
big projector screen in the police control room in Dehradun, the capital of
Uttarakhand, was alive with pictures of the latest batch of rescued pilgrims.
Hundreds of relatives of missing pilgrims were making inquiries, checking
photographs of the latest arrivals of rescued pilgrims and cross-checking call
details and last locations of mobile phones of the missing.
V. Gopalakrishna, a
53-year-old sorting assistant with the postal department in Hyderabad in
southern India, and his wife, D.V. Janaki, a 52-year-old employee with an
adjoining state’s telecommunication department, had arrived at the control room
to register a report on their children, who went missing in the flood near the
Kedarnath shrine on June 16.
The couple had married
late by Indian standards and became parents a decade ago, in their early 40s.
“We had twins. A daughter and a son, born 15 minutes later,” said Mr.
Gopalakrishna.
“My son and daughter
were ahead of us with the porters. We thought that they are safe and we are in
danger,” said Mr. Gopalakrishna, sobbing. It turned out to be the other way
around.
Mr. Gopalakrishna, his
wife, sister and two kids were part of a 13-member group who were on the
pilgrimage to Kedarnath shrine on June 16. They were coming down after visiting
the holy shrine. They had hired porters for their kids. When the mountainous
track was swept away by the flash floods, the parents were separated from the
children.
“We ran up on the
hills to save us and thought that kids are safe ahead,” recalled Ms. Janaki.
A holy man in the
upper hills gave them shelter in his small cave for three days. “My sister died
in front of my eyes due to cold and exhaustion. We even could not bring her
body back,” said Mr. Gopalakrishna. An army helicopter rescued them on June 21.
After the helicopter
dropped them off in Dehradun, Mr. Gopalakrishna and his wife searched
everywhere, but couldn’t find their children or fellow pilgrims. “We are
hopeful that they are there somewhere,” Ms. Janaki said in a weak, low voice.
“I never thought that
they will die together also,” said Mr. Gopalakrishna.
By Wednesday evening,
the police control room had registered reports on 800 missing people, said Jaya
Baloni, a police officer. More than 1,000 people have died in the floods. About
3,000 pilgrims are still stranded because of washed-away roads and bridges.
“Disasters and
miracles happen side by side,” said Mr. Gopalakrishna, as he held onto the
fading hope of finding his children.
Across the state of
Uttarakhand, anxious relatives continued to look for their missing kin. In the
town of Rishikesh, 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of Dehradun, the main bus
yard was filled with waiting relatives. The bus yard, now a hub for stranded
pilgrims who are being evacuated by road, was choked by tents erected by relief
agencies, state governments, political parties and nongovernmental
organizations.
As a bus carrying
rescued pilgrims coming from the Badrinath shrine entered the depot, anxious
relatives rushed to the arriving pilgrims with the pictures of the missing and
a question: Have you seen him? Have you seen her? The answers were almost
always negative.
Mohan Pethiya, a
49-year-old man from Shivpuri in Uttarakhand, had been hanging about the bus
yard for five days, showing a photo of his sister to pilgrims arriving in bus
after bus. His sister and her fellow pilgrims had mobile phones, and Mr.
Pethiya had last heard from her on June 16, before the floods hit. “I am not
able to trace her,” said Mr. Pethiya.
She had been trekking
near Kedarnath when the floods came. Around 600 bodies have been found around
Kedarnath, and preparations for mass cremations were being made.
The most recent
arrivals were from the pilgrimage center of Badrinath, where around 10,000
pilgrims were stranded after landslides and floods washed away roads and
bridges. Shyam Lal, a 28-year-old tailor from Sultanpur in the northern state
of Uttar Pradesh, had taken his elderly parents on the pilgrimage and arrived
in Badrinath a night before the rains came.
“We had food, water,
and shelter in Badrinath, but we couldn’t leave,” said Mr. Lal. After waiting
for five days in Badrinath, Mr. Lal, his parents and several others walked tens
of miles toward a highway, where vehicles were reported to be plying. Along the
way, they had to cross a stream. Indian soldiers were helping people cross and
took the elderly first, including his parents.
“I crossed around
three hours after my parents,” said Mr. Lal. Two days later, he arrived in
Rishikesh on a bus but hasn’t been able to find his parents.
“They must be in a
relief camp somewhere. I do not know where,” said Mr. Lal. “I will keep looking
for them.”
