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In focus
All 24 pilgrims from Maharashtra’s Pune district who were stranded in Uttarakhand are safe and are being airlifted from Gangotri to Uttarkashi, one of their relatives in Pune said on Thursday.
“My father, Ashok Bhor, made a video call as soon mobile network was available. He told me that they are all safe,” Aditya Bhor, a resident of Bhosari, said.
The 24 tourists from Awasari Khurd village, which is around 10 km away from Manchar city, had left for Uttarakhand on a 12-day trip. The group had assembled for a reunion of their 1990 school batch from Awasari Khurd and decided to go to Uttarakhand on a pilgrimage on August 1.
After flash floods and mudslides swept through Dharali village in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on Tuesday, there had been no contact with the 24 tourists. “My father had told me that they would proceed to Gangotri. However, after the flash foods hit the region, there was no contact with the tourists. We all got worried and tried to call the authorities. Till last evening, there was no news, but this morning, my father said in a video call that they were all safe and would soon return to Pune,” Aditya said.
Local officials in Uttarakhand told The Indian Express that the Army and Indo Tibetan Border Police were providing food and shelter to those rescued in Gangotri. “As many as 274 rescued people from Gangotri and nearby areas have been brought to Harshil. All of them are safe. Of these, there are 131 tourists from Gujarat, 123 from Maharashtra, 21 from Madhya Pradesh, 12 from UP, seven from Delhi, six from Rajasthan, five from Assam and Karnataka, three from Telangana and one from Punjab. All of them are completely safe and are being brought to Dehradun and Uttarkashi,” a local official said.
The Pune district administration said the state disaster management cell is in constant touch with the Uttarakhand administration.
