Officially, the rescue operation of the stranded pilgrims and tourists
in Uttarakhand is almost over. Government figures say over 1,05,000 have been
evacuated. Government is capping the death toll at around 900. Speaker of the Uttarakhand assembly says some
10,000 could be dead while the chief minister of the state says exact number of
deaths would never be known. Mass cremation of bodies has begun but digging out
bodies from the mud sludge with boulders, almost three metres high, is an
uphill task.
And midst all this, the cry that was always there, desperately looking
for a voice, is now finding its listeners, introducing us to yet another horror
tale that we all knew, but wasn’t hearing about. Many cities of Uttarakhand
stand devastated. With homes gone and connectivity snapped, most of the towns
and villages in affected areas wear a deserted, ghost-town like look.
The two weeks of the Uttarakhand disaster, like any other calamity of
this scale, have given humanity a pain that will be felt forever.
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