Indian flood toll may cross 5000

The death toll in the Uttarakhand flood-landslide tragedy is likely to cross 5,000, says the state's Disaster Management Minister Yashpal Arya.

"At least 5,000 people must have been killed in the deluge that inflicted heavy damage on vast tracts of land especially in the Kedarnath valley," Arya told media at the Jollygrant airport after completing an aerial survey of the affected areas.

However, Arya did not give a specific figure.

He said recovering all the dead bodies stuck under mountain of debris in affected areas will take 'some time to complete'.

The official death toll as of Friday was put at 680 but chief minister Vijay Bahuguna said it would possibly cross 1,000.

Meanwhile, Kedarnath valley, the temple town which was the epicentre of the cloudburst leading to what has been described as 'Himalayan tsunami', was on Sunday cleared of all stranded pilgrims.

But rescuers battling rains said thousands remained stuck in Badrinath, another temple town, and adjoining areas of Harsil and Gaurikund.

With MeT department warning of adverse weather in the region from Monday, the multi-agency operations is racing against time to rescue remaining 20,00-plus stranded pilgrims stuck in three areas, including Badrinath.

Air operations had to be also briefly suspended late on Sunday due to bad weather, said Air Marshal S B Deo, who is coordinating the aerial rescue effort.

Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel also began constructing foot tracks to speed up evacuation of the stranded pilgrims.

"New tracks for able-bodied men to move on foot are opening up and that is a silver lining," Air Commodore Rajesh Isser, involved with the IAF Task Force said.

He said air operations are now focussed on areas like Gaurikund and Harshil and other places which were not touched until now.

Kedarnath valley has been totally evacuated while over 3,000 stuck in Badrinath, Junglechatti and Harshil areas were evacuated to safe locations by the security forces today, he said. Scores of dead bodies lay strewn in Kedarnath area.

A joint combing operation by the security forces will be launched in Kedarnath valley tomorrow morning to ensure not a single survivor remains stuck in Rudraparayag district.

The Uttarakhand state administration, criticised for its inept handling of the crisis, says atleast 7000 more needed to be rescued from difficult locations.