India Flood: Helicopters Rescue Stranded Victims

Helicopters were deployed on Thursday to airlift people stranded by floodwaters in India’s Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, following a sudden flood and landslide two days earlier that left at least four people dead and several others unaccounted for.

As rainfall lessened and roads became accessible, emergency personnel reached Dharali, a village buried in sludge and debris from Tuesday’s surge. The village lies along the route to Gangotri, a sacred Hindu pilgrimage site.

Rescue helicopters began evacuating those trapped, according to the state’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, who posted updates on X. Dhami described the damage as “massive” and added that officials were still trying to determine how many people remain missing.

“If the weather supports us then we will bring every single person by tomorrow,” he told Reuters, referring to the ongoing rescue mission.

Authorities said around 400 people stranded in Gangotri were being evacuated by air. Among those unaccounted for were nine members of the army and seven civilians.

At the Matli village helipad, anxious families gathered, hoping for news of loved ones still missing.

One of them, Mandeep Panwar, said he was trying to reach Dharali, where his brother operated a hotel and hadn’t been heard from since the disaster.

“If you see the videos, ours was the first hotel to be hit by the deluge. I have not heard from my brother and he has been missing since,” Panwar said.

Rescue and communication efforts faced difficulties, with mobile service and power infrastructure still down after being washed away by the floods, officials said.

Footage from the scene showed army teams using both machines and bare hands to move boulders and debris from roads turned into muddy rivers. More than 225 army personnel were involved in the rescue, the Northern Command said on X.

“We saw Dharali falling before our eyes,” said Anamika Mehra, a pilgrim en route to Gangotri when the disaster occurred.

Dharali, home to about 200 people, sits at an elevation of over 1,150 meters (3,775 feet) in Uttarkashi district, along the path to the Gangotri temple.

Floods and landslides frequently strike Uttarakhand, a risk some experts say is growing worse due to climate change.