A wife’s search for her husband, an anxious uncertainty after Uttarkashi flash floods

The flash flood, which hit the village of Uttarakhand’s Dharali, is feared to have killed several people, with authorities estimating that over 60 are missing. Two bodies have been retrieved so far, and rescue operations entered their fourth day on Friday. The flood swept away over 30 hotels and shops after it struck the market area, which is a stopover for most tourists going to Gangotri.

The flood struck at a time when eight adjacent villages, including Dharali and Mukhba, were holding a religious festival. Several visitors — friends and family of village residents — had gone to the region just to attend it.

While over 400 people have been airlifted to safety, most of them tourists stuck at Gangotri, a few villagers of Dharali and Mukhba have left for safer areas. With no electricity or network, many villagers in Dharali have since attempted to contact their relatives through the satellite phones of the rescuers to assure their families that they are safe.

Panwar has not received a call yet.

She was in Uttarkashi when she saw the video from Dharali. One of the hotels being washed away with the debris was her husband’s. After she couldn’t get through to him, she called her in-laws, who live in the village. They were safe, but they told her that Shubham and his four friends, one of whose bodies had been retrieved, were at the hotel when the deluge came.

“His friends, Gaurav Panwar, Sumit Negi, and Akash Panwar, were with him. I do not know what has happened to him, but I have to find out,” Panwar, who married Negi in January 2024, said.

Khushpal Singh Rawat, whose brother-in-law Mukesh Panwar, wife Vijaita, and three-year-old son Meetu are missing, said he has lost all hope. The family lives in Uttarkashi, and Mukesh would go there only during peak tourist season. However, on August 3, they left for Dharali to attend the festival. Their elder son, five-year-old Adhiksh, stayed behind with his grandmother. “When I spoke with them before the tragedy, they said they were staying at the hotel because it had all the arrangements, though they had a house in the village. When I got to know of the incident, I checked the video to assure my wife that they were safe, but their hotel had been swept away,” he said.

Rawat later contacted one of the staffers at the hotel. “He was heading uphill to take a nap and had seen the family on the second floor of the hotel while leaving. As the tides of debris hit the hotel, he saw them sink with it,” Rawat said. On Thursday, another acquaintance, who escaped by a whisker, attested that the family was inside the hotel when the flood crashed into the village.

On Thursday, Rawat leapt on a helicopter to assess the situation. However, the damage in Dharali stole the little hope he had of finding his family alive. “If we find them, it would be their bodies. We are waiting for the government to publish the list of those trapped. My wife has not spoken since Tuesday, and Adhiksh keeps asking where his baby brother is,” Rawat said.