She went with 7 people,returns alone

For the pilgrims and tourists to Uttarakhand this year,the visit has brought grief and loss of their loved ones,but for 58-year-old Pushpa Pandey,its a visit that will haunt her forever.

The only person in a group of eight to have returned to her home in Ghazipur from the flood-ravaged state,Pandey stands with no information about four of her family members along with two neighbours,and a memory of having seen her brothers deteriorating health leading to his death.

For three days we (Pushpa and her brother) stayed on a hill. Later,he fell seriously ill. Because of having no food,he was not able to walk. I tried to get him down the hill so that we could reach to Rambara but he was not able to move. He died on the night of June 19, Pushpa said.

Pushpa,a resident of Nandganj in Ghazipur district,had gone on a pilgrimage in Uttarakhand with her brother Vijay Narayan Pandey,his wife Chandrakanta,sister Urmila Mishra,brother-in-law Jayprakash Mishra,sister-in-law Girija and two neighbours Gangotra and Tirupati.

She says the floods came on the night of June 16 when they were returning from Kedarnath after visiting the shrine. The sudden flood swept all of us away. I somehow managed to climb up a hill. It was dark so I could not see where the others had been swept away to, she recalls.

On not finding anyone else from the group and having lost her brother,Pushpa had to leave her brothers body behind and reach Rambara. She was brought to Phata on a helicopter from where she reached Rishikesh and finally arrived her home by a train on Monday.

Her family members have now gone to retrieve Vijays body and search for the others who remain untraceable since then.

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