'Given a chance, we want to complete the yatra'

Chinchwad-based couple Shashikant Mehta (59) and Shamita (57) will never forget the Char Dham Yatra in Uttarakhand. The couple was part of the 38-member group who were on their yatra and stuck in the floods.

“We reached Haridwar on Sunday and at the railway station itself, we could make out that something is wrong. Little did we know that we were about to face nature’s fury. We managed to go around Haridwar on Monday, despite heavy rainfall. But the situation worsened. There were several groups of tourists reporting at our hotel. A video that was shared among us changed the whole idea of continuing with the journey any further,” said Mehta. 

Shamita said , “A woman tourist showed us a video of the raging river and the damage at Yamunotri that she had shot on her cellphone. We decided to call off the rest of the yatra.”

She said that the atmosphere in and around the hotel was tense and the locals kept warning us against continuing the journey.

Mehtas, who dared to attend the most auspicious Ganga Aarti, said that they were scared to see the over-swollen river. 

“I had never imagined that the river would become so dangerous. While we watched the aarti being performed, a huge wave lashed near us and we did not know where to run,” she said. 

Guide and manager of the group from Bhagyashree Travels, Umesh Joshi said, “The responsibility of 38 tourists was a tough job. To be constantly updated about the situation and relaying it to the tourists without scaring them was a big challenge. I was alerted by a friend from going ahead as he was stuck with fifteen tourists there.”

Prasad, their son, said, “I was numbed after I heard the situation in Uttarkashi on Monday. I tried contacting my parents. Luckily I got through them and came to know about their whereabouts.”

Interestingly, despite experiencing the worst from such close quarters, the Mehtas want to complete the trip. “We have just offered prayers at one dham, three more are left. Hopefully when everything is back to normal, we would like to revisit and complete the journey.”

Arrangements were made for the group to reach New Delhi and later they were safely flown home on Wednesday night.

Frantic search on in cyberia

With six days gone by and no trace or little contact with relatives yet, family members back home have resorted to using various social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook to circulate photographs and appeals for help.

Eight members of Vijay Bapu Sonar’s family are stranded somewhere near Gaurikund and they spoke to them only for a few seconds on Thursday morning.

“They just said that they are safe and not to ask about food and other conditions since it was too much to describe. They informed as of not receiving any help yet, and the phone got disconnected. I am trying continuously but there is no contact. We are worried as their three and five years old kids may be sleeping out in the open on some mountain tops for six days in continuous rain and cold,” he said.

With little help from all available sources of contact, he is appealing to netizens. Like him, Aurangabad’s chartered accountant Atul Modani is desperately trying to contact his family members and other relatives since Sunday morning. Modani last spoke to his sister-in-law Sunita Jetliya, who was airlifted from Kedarnath temple and has been relocated at a camp in Ramkund.

Modani said, “Of the 14-member-group, my sister-in-law and three others were traced and are on their way back to Aurangabad. But the other relatives of age 11-55 years are missing. The apathy of the administration to our situation is disgusting,” said Modani, who has now turned to social networking sites for help. 

Mahesh Srirao, brother of victim Swarupa Ghulane and Pradeep Ghulane, based in Belapur has put up the photograph of six members of his family, including sister and brother-in-law, on these sites.

“They were at Kedarnath on Sunday. Due to the worsening conditions, they were asked to take shelter at higher altitudes. Their hotel staff helped them but the last we heard was that only two of the six are present at a higher altitude. The rest are somewhere in the area between Gaurikund and Guptakashi and are yet to be traced.” 

On an adventure trip, they faced calamity successfully

They had to cross the rough Pindhari river by making a human chain, cut trees to clear the road, witness landslides, trek 30 km in a day through hilly, muddy terrain and debris to reach Delhi, leaving behind the Uttarakhand calamity but carrying home a lifetime experience.

It was a successful weeklong trek to Roopkund, the mystery lake in Uttarakhand, for the 14-member group from Pune till June 15. Then disaster struck and the group began their unforgettable combat with natural calamity during their journey back home. 

The trekkers returned safely to Pune on Wednesday after facing innumerable hurdles and difficulties.

Dr Sangeeta Kohli, a pathologist, along with her son Akkash and daughter Divyaa, was part of the group that included Akshay Biniwale, a second year engineering student from BITS Pilani Goa. 

“After reaching the Pune airport, it was difficult for all of us to go home. We felt like going back and experiencing it all again,” Divyaa and Akkash said, adding that studies forced them to leave Uttarakhand otherwise they would have waited for normalcy in the region. Divyaa will be seeking admission for standard XI and Akkash will opt for an engineering course.

Roopkund is a high altitude glacier lake at 16,500 ft in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. Green Earth Adventures had taken this group of 14 enthusiasts, including students between the age group of 15 and 20 years, and two married women. Kohli said, “We will never forget June 17 and 18 as we witnessed landslides, falling of trees and flooding of rivers. We walked for almost 30 kilometers before reaching Almoda from where we could get a vehicle.”

It was Green Earth Adventures owner and group leader Kedar Gogate and guide Rajesh Negi who sensed that it would be difficult for the group to move and immediately left from Roopkund to reach Rudraprayag and then Maharashtra safely. 

Timely advice from local villagers to leave Garhwal and enter Kumaon helped them to reach Almora and Kathgodam on June 18.