'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.Two Chinook helicopters, along with IAF’s C-295 and An-32 transport aircraft, were ready to be deployed as soon as weather conditions allowed.