A cultural festival at Badrinath Dham has ignited a major controversy due to a loud music and dance event, leading the Chamoli district administration to issue a show-cause notice to the Garhwal Scouts. Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi and the Shankaracharya Math have strongly condemned the event, citing violations of cultural and religious decorum and the sanctity of the holy shrine.
A group of Nihangs, armed with traditional weapons, stormed a gurdwara in Rudraprayag, taking a Sikh devotee hostage on the roof to demand the release of four sect members arrested after a clash in Chamoli.
The Nihangs have called off their planned protest march in Uttarakhand related to a recent dispute at the Karnaprayag market in Chamoli and a gurdwara in Nagrasu.
An employee of the Shri Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) has been suspended following a preliminary inquiry into alleged irregularities in the management of donations at Badrinath Dham. Both the BKTC and the Uttarakhand government have launched separate investigations into the matter, which gained attention after social media allegations and a formal complaint. The government committee is expected to submit its report within 15 days.
Over 150 Nihangs are camping at Paonta Sahib gurdwara in Himachal Pradesh, refusing to return to Punjab until four members of their sect, arrested in Uttarakhand following a clash with locals, are released. The group had previously attempted to force entry into Uttarakhand and clashed with police, leading to an ongoing standoff.
Flash floods ravaged Dharali, around 264 km from Chamoli, burying half of the mountain village in a fast-flowing mudslide of slush, rubble, and water.
The bodies of the last four of the trapped labourers were pulled out from the site of the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday, taking the death toll to eight as authorities ended the nearly 60-hour rescue operation.
A landslide on the Kedarnath route in Uttarakhand killed two pilgrims and injured six, while heavy rain led to the temporary suspension of the Char Dham and Hemkund Sahib pilgrimages.
On August 5, 1953, Jawaharlal Nehru sent a strange note to the foreign secretary. It is worth mentioning because it was symptomatic of the lack of knowledge about Western Tibet in India and in South Block in particular, notes Claude Arpi.
A devastating flashflood in the Kheer Ganga river on August 5 demolished nearly half of Dharali -- the key stopover en route to Gangotri with many hotels and homestays, and neighbouring Harsil, where an Army camp bore the brunt of the flood fury, barely giving time to the victims to run to safety.
A total of 430 BRO workers were at the road-construction site when the avalanche occurred on Friday, Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar said.
The avalanche hit the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath between 5:30 am and 6 am on Friday, burying the workers inside eight containers and a shed, according to the Army.
Forty-one Border Road Organisation labourers working to clear snow near the high altitude border village of Mana in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district were trapped under an avalanche on Friday.
Amid protests by a group of residents in Joshimath, the Chamoli administration on Thursday put a ban on all construction activities in and around the 'sinking' town even as nearly 50 families staying in houses at risk have been evacuated so far.
Prohibitory orders banning the assembly of people have been clamped in Nandanagar in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district where tension prevailed over a man allegedly making an obscene gesture towards a teenaged girl, a senior official said on Tuesday.
Flooding in Jummagad river flowing near Jumma village on the Joshimath-Niti highway, about 45 km from Joshimath, continued till late night on Monday evening, during which the bridge collapsed.
According to officials, the Ganga was flowing at 463.20 metres following which water filled up in Sangam Ghat, Ramkund, Dhaneshwar Ghat and Fuladi Ghat. There was also a tremendous jump in the water level of the Ganga after 2,000-3,000 cusecs of water was released from the dam of the GVK hydroelectric project built on the Alaknanda river.
The protesters demonstrated against the NTPC's Tapovan Vishnugad Hydroelectric Project which was being constructed in the area.
The district magistrate said that a central team will survey the damage to properties due to the land subsidence and suggest a way forward while coordinating with the local administration in relief and rescue efforts.
The death toll in the avalanche triggered by the bursting of a glacier in Chamoli has gone up to 58 as a total of 11 bodies are recovered from the Tapovan tunnel, whereas 146 people are still missing, said Uttarakhand Police on Tuesday.
According to the Jyotirmath administration, these cracks have increased in the last 15 days.
Yet another effort has been made by the state government for a scientific study with the help of satellite imagery of the crisis in the sinking town, Bhatt, who is associated with the Chipko Movement, said.
The Army on Sunday deployed four columns and two medical teams in the rescue of people affected by a massive flood in the Dhauli Ganga river after a part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off at Joshimath in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, officials said.
Four earthquakes, the strongest being of magnitude 6.2, jolted Nepal in quick succession with tremors reverberating through parts of north India including Delhi-NCR, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) said on Tuesday.
Reacting to the results, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that in the by-elections held on 13 seats in seven states, the people of the country have given their support to the INDIA bloc.
Incessant rains lashed Uttarakhand for the second consecutive day on Monday, prompting the authorities to advise Chardham pilgrims not to proceed to the Himalayan temples till the weather improves.
The local administration has set up relief centres at four-five places in the Himalayan town, Garhwal commissioner Sushil Kumar said.
Search operation at the project site has been underway on a war footing basis for a fortnight since it bore the brunt of an avalanche triggered by a glacier burst over Rishi Ganga in Chamoli district on February 7.
Hotels Malari Inn and Mount View, which have developed more cracks, will be demolished on Tuesday.
General Pande said, "25-28 buildings (of the Army) have developed minor cracks and the soldiers have been temporarily relocated. If needed they will be permanently relocated to Auli."
Many families in the affected area are finding it hard to sever their emotional ties with their homes and move out.
Uttarakhand minister Satpal Maharaj said an inquiry will be conducted to find out how multi-storey buildings were allowed to be constructed in Joshimath which has been sinking for at least 20 years.
In Delhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah assessed the situation in Joshimath and steps taken to ameliorate people's hardship at a meeting attended by Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, R K Singh, Bhupendra Yadav and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and top officials.
A tab was kept on visiting pilgrims through CCTV cameras to ensure there was no violation of COVID-19 protocol.
Officials said 13 more families living in houses with huge cracks were moved by the administration to safe locations on Sunday.
The administration started preparing for the demolition of two precariously standing hotels in subsidence-hit Joshimath in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, but faced protests from their owners and locals on the issue of compensation, while more families were evacuated from the danger zone as the number of affected houses rose to over 700.
A lake formed after melting of glaciers at Satopanth in Chamoli district posed fresh danger to the rain-ravaged areas of Badrinath, Joshimath and Karnaprayag, prompting the administration to issue an alert.
The number of subsidence-affected homes rose to 678 while 27 more families were evacuated to safety, a bulletin from the Disaster Management Authority in Chamoli said, adding so far 82 families have been shifted to safe locations in the town.
If implemented after stakeholder consultations, migrant voters do not need to travel to their home district to exercise their franchise.
The temporary water body was formed after sediments that the catastrophic flash flood earlier this month brought down, blocking the mouth of a stream that joins the Rishiganga river.
