50 Hyderabad pilgrims feared dead in Uttarakhand floods

HYDERABAD: Even as the magnitude of the tragedy in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand continues to unfold, eyewitness accounts of survivors and information received by relatives indicate that at least 50 persons from Hyderabad alone are feared dead or missing. With similar information emanating from the other districts too, it will take days to ascertain the final death toll from the state, admitted officials.
In the gravest incident so far, 12 pilgrims were reportedly washed away by flood waters in Kedarnath on June 16. D Ajay, a hardware businessman and resident of Ramnagar, said “My brother-in-law Ravi Goud, mother Sujatha and few other relatives, 21 in all, went for the pilgrimage. After seeing the news on TV about the flooding in Uttarakhand, I telephoned Ravi around 9 am on June 16 to enquire about their safety and he said all of them were safe and sound. However, the very next day, Ravi called me to say that the situation was very bad there. He told me 12 persons including my 56-year-old mother who had taken shelter atop a building got washed away in front of his eyes after it collapsed all of a sudden,” Ajay, who was still in a state of shock, told STOI on Saturday evening. Ravi has since been rescued and brought by a helicopter to Dehradun from where he made it to Delhi.
In another incident, 10 of the 12 postal employees from the city and two children who were with them are feared dead or missing, also in Kedarnath. M Ravi Shankar, deputy general manager, southern telecom projects, BSNL, said the twin children (aged 10) of V Gopalakrishna, a department of posts employee, were among the victims. “Gopalakrishna telephoned me on June 16 and said while he and his wife D V Janaki, a BSNL employee, survived the floods, their twin children Manobhi Ram and Mani Mekhala, were among those washed away in the flood waters.
Others from this group who are not traceable after the flood fury include Sathawani, 48, R Venkatalakshmi, 49, R Rambabu, 57, Lakshminarayanamma, 58, G Kameshwari 50, P V Nagabhushanam, 56, MVL Padmavathi, 51, and P Saisri, 19. Ravi Shankar said he has already lodged a complaint with the Hyderabad collectorate control room and that Gopalakrishna was on his way to the city from Delhi.
Harisha, a chartered accountant and resident of Masab Tank, told STOI that her parents Rama Sharma, 58, mother Ramani and younger sister Nirisha had gone to Badrinath for the yatra. “From there, they hired a car and were proceeding to Kedarnath when they went missing. I have not heard from them since,” a weeping Harisha said.
Similarly, P Mahesh, a resident of Shivaji Nagar in Uppuguda, told STOI that his parents P Vidyasagar and mother Sakkubai telephoned him on June 16 to say that 10 pilgrims of their 21-member group got washed away. Vidyasagar and his wife are now on their way to Hyderabad. Likewise, of the 13-member pilgrim group that went to Kedarnath from P&T Colony, Dilsukhnagar, 10 of them got washed away in the flood waters, said Sandeep, son of Lakshminarayanamma, a pilgrim who was among the three from this group who survived.
A Satyanarayana, a travel agency owner, told STOI that he had sent a 20-member group on a pilgrimage to Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri. “My driver, Sanjay, informed me that 11 members of the group got washed away,” he said.
Till late on Saturday night, state government officials could not ascertain the number of deaths of pilgrims hailing from Andhra Pradesh.