300 people still stranded in Uttarakhand, awaiting rescue

Dehradun: It has been three weeks now since devastating floods and landslides ravaged Uttarakhand, but there are still at least 300 people trapped in Dharma and Vyas valley regions.

The Met department has forecast heavy rain in the region over the next two days - not unusual for this time of the year, but it will pose a challenge to authorities and locals still struggling in the aftermath of the devastation.

Authorities fear that some of the roads, which had just opened, could again be blocked because of landslides. Officials from the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and the Public Works Department (PWD) have been asked to see if there is any damage.

Yesterday, 176 people were airlifted to safety. Food and supplies also continue to be dropped in the Darchula and Munsyari areas that remain cut-off.

The state government's other challenging tasks are to fish out hundreds of bodies from sites of landslides and reach out with ration and relief material to local people stranded in villages spread across Tehri, Pauri, Chamoli and Kumaon regions.

Nearly 1000 people have died so far, and the toll is expected to rise further as over 3,500 people are still missing in the state.