‘Kedarnath trust failed to heed cop warning’

His ordeal began on June 15,when the first flash floods hit the hill state of Uttarakhand. “I can clearly remember the night of June 15. I was sitting along with a few other sadhus when a policeman came to us and said that the weather was worsening and that it was dangerous to stay in Kedarnath .They wanted the temple trust to stop the darshans and tell people to move to safer places,” Giri said.

“The trust was reluctant. They have made the temple a business. Stopping people from visiting the shrine would have meant great monetary loss to them but this cost so many lives,” he alleged.

Next day,however,tragedy struck. “On the evening of June16,there were 10,000 to 12,000 people in the queue for aarti. We were there when the floods hit; people ran to safer places. We too ran towards the pravachan hall and 40 of us were there almost hanging with the help the roof for 18 hours before things calmed down. There were some 100 people who took refuge at Bhairav Mandir.”

The ascetic goes on to add that he along with other sadhus then trekked to higher ground at Triyuginarayan temple,some distance from Kedarnath.

“As we reached the peak,however,we were horrified to see the scene. There were around 35 to 40 bodies lying there; some of them without clothes while others had body parts like fingers and hands missing. Most probably it had been done to for their ornaments and police began suspecting sadhus like us. One policeman even looked at my ring and asked me if I had taken it from a dead body,” Giri said.

According to sadhu,currency notes,from a State Bank of India that had been washed away in the floods,were lying everywhere and people began to pick them them. This prompted police to start checking everybody.

“The police began to claim that whatever money sadhus like me had,belonged to the bank. They took all my money that had been given to me by the people of Malwa village. They also harassed other sadhus,” Giri claimed.

He then recollects the tragedy that ensued: “We picked up a three-year-old girl,whose family went missing on June 16. We fed her with mishri as there was nothing more to eat. When we reached Garud Chatti,we handed her to Army personnel. There was another seven-year-old boy from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh who lost his entire family.”

Giri underlines the magnitude of the devastation: “According to temple committee there were around 24,000 people in Kedarnath on June 16,of whom,only 5000 people could be traced after things calmed down.”

He,however,was air-lifted to safety. “It was on June 21 that people got to known that people are stranded at Garud Chatti after BJP leaders coordinated with Uttarakhand government. After that we were airlifted and dropped at Guptkashi. Here we stayed at Vidyadham ashram. It is after reaching here that I ate something after three days. From there we were taken to Rishikesh and then to Chandigarh,” Giri said.