At least three people were killed and eight others were injured on the Kedarnath Yatra route in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district after a landslide hit the area on Sunday morning. According to the information provided by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), which has been carrying out rescue operations, the landslide occurred near Chirbasa when the pilgrims were travelling on foot to reach the Kedarnath temple from Gaurikund. The deceased were identified as Maharashtra natives Kishore Arun Parate, 31, from Nagpur; Sunil Mahadev Kale, 24, from Jalna; and Anurag Bisht, 22, from Rudraprayag in Uttarakhand. Nandan Singh Rajwar, the Rudraprayag district disaster management officer (DDMO), said that at around 7:30 am, they received information about pilgrims being buried under the debris. The Rudraprayag district control room informed the SDRF team about the landslide. Upon receiving this information, the SDRF team, accompanied by Inspector Anirudh Singh Bhandari and necessary rescue equipment, promptly arrived at the location and carried out the rescue operation, stated the SDRF. "The SDRF team reached the spot, evacuated the eight injured and took them to a hospital. The bodies of the deceased were handed over to the district police by the SDRF team," the SDRF said. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami offered condolences to the families of the deceased who were on the way to visit the Kedarnath Dham. “Relief and rescue work is going on at the site of the accident, I am constantly in touch with the officials in this regard,” the CM said in a post on X.
