Uttarakhand: 3 Pilgrims Killed, 8 Injured As Landslide Hits Kedarnath Yatra Route

DEHRADUN: In a tragic incident, a landslide occurred in the Kedarnath Yatra route in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district on Sunday morning, claiming three lives and injuring eight others.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) has been engaged in carrying out rescue operations. The disaster management agency stated that the landslide struck when the pilgrims were travelling on foot to reach the Kedarnath temple from Gaurikund.

Two tourists from Maharashtra and a local resident of Rudraprayag district met with an untimely fate as the landslides took their lives.

The deceased has been identified as 31-year-old Kishore Arun Parate from Nagpur; Sunil Mahadev Kale, 24, from Jalna; and local boy Anurag Bisht, aged 22, hailing from Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand.

Nandan Singh Rajwar, the Rudraprayag district disaster management officer (DDMO), said that they received information about pilgrims being buried under the debris at around 7:30 am.

The SDRF team were apprised about this devastating landslide by the Rudraprayag district control room.

After getting notified, the SDRF team, accompanied by Inspector Anirudh Singh Bhandari and necessary rescue equipment, rushed to the spot and carried out the rescue operation, as per the SDRF.

The rescue team evacuated the eight injured and took them to a hospital while the bodies of the deceased trapped under the ruble were handed over to the district police by the SDRF team. Rescue teams are working diligently to assist those affected by the tragic event.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed his condolences to the grieving families of the victims and assured that relief and rescue operations are ongoing. 

“Relief and rescue work is going on at the site of the accident, I am constantly in touch with the officials in this regard,” CM Dhami posted on the micro-blogging site X (formerly known as Twitter).

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