Uttarakhand unable to give monsoon casualty figures

The official death toll stands at 52

More than 48 hours after floods, cloudbursts and landslides battered Uttarakhand, the state is yet to make an assessment of the death and destruction caused by the natural calamities, specially in the flood-ravaged districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Pithoragarh.

With the government claiming it had pressed helicopters to airlift those stranded and dropped food packets and continued relief operations, whereabouts of a large number who went missing during the weekend were still not known. The official death toll stood at 52 this evening.

"We cannot give a casualty figure since most of the road links in all those affected areas have been washed away in the floods," said chief secretary Subhash Kumar. Director General of Police (DGP) Satyabrat Bansal also confirmed nearly 11-12 police personnel were missing in the worst-affected Rambara area of Rudraprayag district. Over 50 people had been feared drowned in the flooded Mandakini in Rambara.

The government's worries compounded today when on news that 20-25 people were missing in Tajem area of Pithoragarh district. "There is no contact with Tejam area to verify the exact casualty there" said the chief secretary.

The government pressed nearly 10 helicopters to make an aerial survey and provide food packets and drinking water to the stranded people at various areas. Yesterday, the government had claimed that nearly 35,000 people were stranded. With the army and ITBP personnel rescuing thousands of people from various areas, hundreds of people are still stranded in the three districts.