7,893 Missing in Uttarakhand, UN says 11,000

It is difficult to estimate the exact number of casualties in Uttarakhand flood as thousands of pilgrims and locals are still missing. While Uttarakhand government put the number of people missing at 7,893, the United Nations agency said that the figure could be more than 11000.

A total of 1,350 people have been evacuated from Badrinath today. However, more than 3,500 are still untraced in the flood-ravaged hill state. The government estimated the missing numbers on the basis of the FIRs lodged in major towns of the state. Around 3,500 missing reports have been filed in Rudraprayag, 2,780 in Rishikesh, 1,289 in Dehradun and 285 in Haridwar. However, the report prepared by the UN agency and some NGOs shows more than 11000.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has rescued 8,634 people from Kedarnath so far, taking the overall evacuation to 1,08,253 people. The maximum deaths have occurred in the Kedarnath and Rambada areas. The number of injured cases rose to 3,119 today, compared to 436 on Saturday. The rescue operations are being hampered due to bad weather. About 385 heavy machines and bulldozers are in operation cutting through the debris.