At least 38 pilgrims have died due to health-related reasons in the first 26 days of the Char Dham Yatra in Uttarakhand. The pilgrimage began on April 19, with Kedarnath recording the highest fatalities.
Around 2 million commercial and domestic LPG cylinders will be required to meet demand from hotels, restaurants, and roadside eateries during the upcoming Char Dham Yatra 2026, according to Prajapati Nautiyal, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the Char Dham Yatra Administration Organisation.
Film actress Sara Ali Khan's entry to Badrinath and Kedarnath temple complexes is contingent on submitting an affidavit declaring her faith in Sanatan Dharma, according to the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee chairman.
Snowfall and rain hit the Char Dham Yatra on Tuesday with thousands of pilgrims halted en route to Kedarnath and Yamunotri temples in the Garhwal Himalayas as a precautionary measure.
"We don't accept the board's decision on opening the temple gates for a limited number of locals. We won't allow anyone to enter the shrine until the coronavirus infection goes away completely from Uttarakhand," Yamunotri temple committee general secretary Manmohan Uniyal said.
According to a statement from the Rudraprayag police, the landslide was triggered by continuous heavy rainfall, which caused large amounts of debris and stones to fall onto the trekking route, blocking and damaging the walkway to Kedarnath Dham.
The labourers, who are said to be of Nepali origin, were engaged in the construction of a hotel.
After chairing an emergency meeting with senior officials to discuss the situation, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that heli services on the Char Dham route will remain suspended for two days, as the weather is bad and the safety of the passengers is the government's top priority.
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.
Take our quiz to test your knowledge about the Char Dham Yatra of Uttarakhand.
Wangchuk rued that over the years, glacial ice has been receding but action remains delayed.
The Badrinath temple in the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand opened for devotees on Sunday, May 12, 2024, after remaining closed during the winter.
Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, Auli, Munsiyari received fresh snowfall on Monday, October 16, 2023.
Citing the example of last year, he said many pilgrims who came for the yatra from rural areas of Uttar Pradesh had to return from Rishikesh and Haridwar as they had not registered in advance for it.
They said the incident occurred around 4 am when a 150-metre-long portion of the four-and-a-half-kilometer-long tunnel collapsed.
The 4.5 kilometre-long Silkyara tunnel project in Uttarakhand, which is part of the central government's strategic 900-km 'Char Dham Yatra All Weather Road', will continue after the necessary safety audit and repair of the broken structure, a senior road ministry official said on Wednesday.
The government will review the weather conditions in the coming days and accordingly take a decision in the interest of the pilgrims, he said.
'The temple's construction is the result of collective wisdom of some of the best brains in the country. Water and sacred soil from almost all pilgrimage sites in India, including Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kailash Mansarovar, Prayags (there are seven Prayags) and all 'puris' (seven holy towns in India, besides Ayodhya) have been used in the making of the temple'
Rescuers at the under-construction tunnel collapse site in Uttarkashi on Tuesday initiated the process of inserting large-diameter mild steel pipes through the rubble using an auger machine to rescue the 40 workers trapped for two days now, officials said.
Heavy rains in Uttarakhand caused a surge in streams that damaged buildings and shops while landslides in the hills blocked national highways and a number of rural motor roads on Thursday.
The CM will be accompanied by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari during his visit to the tunnel site on Sunday.
'We are hoping that in three-four days we will surely get a positive result.'
Anil Bediya, one of the 41 labourers who were rescued from a collapsed Uttarakhand tunnel after 16 days, survived the ordeal by eating muri (puffed rice) and licking water dripping from rocks.
The new machine, that landed at the Chinyalisaur helipad, over 30 kilometres from the tunnel on the Chardham route, is being put into service, amid apprehension by workers at the site on the progress of the multi-agency rescue operations.
It has been a week since 41 labourers got trapped inside an under-construction tunnel at Silkyara in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district after parts of the structure collapsed following a landslide last Sunday.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday visited the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel site for a review of the rescue operations being carried out there to evacuate 40 labourers trapped inside since Sunday morning following its partial collapse.
A high-level committee constituted by Dhami to look into the Devasthanam Board issue had submitted its recommendations to the chief minister in Rishikesh on Sunday.
Here is the timeline of the disaster and the rescue efforts that followed.
Swami Darshan Bharti, the founder of "Devbhoomi Raksha Abhiyan" which had allegedly pasted threatening posters on shops run by Muslims in the communally tense Purola, on Friday claimed that he has received a death threat.
After 16 days of intense efforts by multiple agencies, all 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi have safely been evacuated on Tuesday evening.
A tab was kept on visiting pilgrims through CCTV cameras to ensure there was no violation of COVID-19 protocol.
A Border Roads Organisation team will be stationed in Joshimath to monitor the yatra on a day-to-day basis and ensure immediate treatment of cracks on roads or any other problem that might arise, the chief minister said.
'These kinds of tunnels are not meant for the Himalayas.' 'Development should be good for all people and not where you make a tunnel and 40 people get trapped.'
The Supreme Court Friday said it will strengthen its 2018 guidelines for dealing with mob violence, hate speeches and lynching to ensure that culprits are dealt with equally, irrespective of their communities for their public utterances spreading bigotry.
The death toll in the Uttarkashi bus accident rose to 26 with the recovery of one more body after which the search and rescue operation was concluded, officials said on Monday.
Announcing this in Dehradun on Thursday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat said conducting the yatra amid the raging pandemic is not possible.
The family members of 26 people from Madhya Pradesh, who were killed in the Uttarakhand accident, cannot believe that the pilgrimage met with a tragic end.
A senior Delhi Jal Board (DJB) official on Sunday bathed in water taken from a stretch of the Yamuna where the utility sprayed a chemical to dissipate foam in the river.
The 25-member team returned to Rishikesh on Monday after traversing a distance of 1,158 km on foot braving the vagaries of the weather in highly difficult terrain in 50 days.
Former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had to face the ire of teerth purohits in Kedarnath as he arrived at the Himalayan temple on Monday to offer prayers.
