Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar told PTI that the accident took place above the forests of Gaurikund amid poor visibility due to bad weather.
Last ditch efforts were on to evacuate about 900 people from Badrinath amid overcast conditions at some places in Uttarakhand on Monday where authorities were grappling with the task of extricating bodies from under tonnes of debris lying in Kedarghati and their cremation.
Terming the recent calamity in Uttarakhand as a man-made disaster, activist Medha Patkar has said it is time to rethink the concept of development. "This disaster has been caused by unplanned development. It is the result of mindless misuse of the state's natural resources. The dams, barrages and tunnels built in the name of hydel projects have impacted the course of the rivers which led to the tragedy," Patkar said.
With weather clearing up, relief operations on Sunday gained momentum in Uttarakhand as the government came out with a roadmap for clearing tonnes of debris and extricating bodies in Kedarnath and adjoining areas ravaged by flash floods over a month ago.
Relief operations resumed in disaster-hit Uttarakhand on Tuesday as the weather cleared up after three days even as most of the personnel engaged in clearing debris and cremating bodies at Kedarnath were withdrawn with the state government deciding to replace them with a new team.
With the removal of huge amount of debris in Kedarnath posing the biggest challenge to the state government in calamity-hit Uttarakhand, Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Monday visited the Himalayan shrine along with a team of Engineers (India) Projects Limited experts to speed up the mammoth exercise.
Inclement weather badly hampered cremation of bodies and removal of debris at Kedarnath on Friday besides affecting distribution of relief in over 200 segregated villages where people have lost their homes and are faced with acute foodgrain shortage.
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