'Mountain is still shifting': Rescuers battle rain & rubble in race against time in Uttarakhand's Dharali; 15 remain missing

DEHRADUN: Twenty-four hours after the flash flood that tore through Dharali village near Gangotri, rescue teams were still struggling to reach the epicentre of the devastation.

Landslides, fractured roads and a washed-away bridge had reduced the approach to Dharali — once a remote but reachable hamlet — into a logistical nightmare for rescue workers fighting both weather and topography.

By Wednesday afternoon, it had become clear that reaching those trapped or missing wasn’t just about dispatching people and resources.

The challenge also lay in getting there. Meanwhile, rescue teams already present in Dharali — including the Army, ITBP and SDRF — pulled out the body of 32-year-old Mahavir Singh Panwar from the rubble on Wednesday. A second body was recovered later in the day, while at least 15 people remain missing.

A 30-metre-long bridge near Gangnani on the Gangotri National highway was swept away by the floodwaters, snapping access to several upstream villages including Dharali, Jhala, and Mukhba.

Flash floods: SDRF officer says mountain is still shifting

Among those stranded were key officials — the district magistrate and superintendent of police — who had set out to oversee the response effort. Multiple landslides blocked not just the main approach roads but also alternate routes. “The mountain is still shifting,” said an SDRF officer.

Inspector General (IG) of SDRF, Arun Mohan Joshi, who was among the first state govt officials to reach the disaster-hit village, said that the “debris at the site was over 50ft high.” Joshi coordinated the airlift of two seriously injured Army personnel — including a Lt Colonel — from the flood-hit Army camp in Harsil to the Military Hospital in Dehradun.

To add to the rescuers’ woes, a temporary landslide-dammed lake formed at Harsil on Tuesday evening. Created by debris clogging the Mandakini Ghadera stream, the lake quickly grew into a concern of its own. By Wednesday, water was spilling over its edge, prompting teams from the irrigation department and Army to step in and begin drainage operations.

Local residents had been evacuated to higher ground, the state emergency operation centre (SEOC) said in a statement.

According to disaster management secretary Vinod Kumar Suman, teams from the Army, ITBP, SDRF, NDRF, and medical departments were on ground zero. Around 150 personnel from the Rajputana Rifles, 12 from the Ghatak Battalion, 100 ITBP jawans, and 40 Army men from Nelang Valley were working to assist the villagers.

The Army personnel from the nearby Harsil camp, in their ongoing rescue operation in Dharali village have managed to rescue at least 70 people and shift them to safe places while providing medical aid to the needy ones.

Public relation officer, defence (Dehradun), Lt Col Manish Srivastava, on Tuesday informed that, to assist the existing troops in the rescue operation, around 40 additional personnel had left their base at Nelong Valley for Dharali in the morning.

“Apart from this, efforts are also on to get the heavy engineering machinery to reach the village to assist the personnel. We have already deployed drones and rescue dogs to search the missing people. Apart from this, 11 Army personnel who were injured in the rescue operation in Dharali on Monday, were evacuated out of the village to higher centres on Tuesday after being provided the primary medical aid,” said Lt Col Srivastava.

He further informed that the General Officer Commanding in Chief of the Army’s central command, Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta reached the Harsil camp to monitor the operation to search nine of the missing personnel after the camp, around 4kms away from Dharali, was hit by a mudslide on Tuesday.

“Earlier on Tuesday, commanding officer of Joshimath based Ibex brigade, Brig Mandeep Singh Dhillon, along with other senior officers had left for Dharali to monitor the rescue operation. He is at present based at a village near Dharali under phone and power connectivity to coordinate both the rescue operations,” said Lt Col Srivastava.

Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force (IAF) had pressed in two Chinook helicopters and two transport aircrafts- C285 and An-32 to assist the rescue operations on request of the state government.

A senior IAF officer privy to development, told TOI that the assets had reached Dehradun’s Jolly Grant airport.

“They are carrying the relief material and other necessary equipment along with personnel to assist the rescue operations. They will leave for Dharali as and when the weather allows them to do this. Apart from these, Mi-17v5 choppers are also on standby at the nearby air bases to join the rescue efforts as per the requirement,” said the officer.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has deployed its personnel along with the required machinery to repair the damaged vital and bridges which have obstructed road connectivity to Dharali village. One of the bridges at Limchigadh area was washed away on Tuesday morning which cut off the road connectivity to Dharali, Mukhba and other nearby villages.

“Following the extensive damage to the Limchigadh bridge the BRO has decided to construct a Bailey bridge to restore road connectivity. A task force of around 100 BRO personnel and 400 labourers are working to construct the bridge as well as repair damaged roads in at least two other areas including Papadgadh and another approaching road to Dharali. We are at present gathering the required resources to construct that bridge as soon as possible as it is vital to restore road connectivity to Dharali and nearby villages," said a BRO officer involved in the operation.