Gaurikund/Kedarnath, June 22
An overwhelming stench of bodies and rotting carcasses wafts through the air as one nears the worst-affected stretch of the June-16 catastrophe in Uttarakhand.

Rescuers continue to locate survivors, some dangerously close to death due to injuries, starvation and thirst.

The Gaurikund-Kedarnath axis is a 18-km valley where death played out its macabre dance on the intervening night of June 16 and 17, scarring the souls of survivors forever. But rescuers, all pilots of the Army Aviation and the Indian Air Force (IAF), go about their job without much display of emotion - a tough call under these trying circumstances.

The valley starts at a point where the Himalayas offer a 50 metre-wide gap named Gaurikund - for its bowl shape. It ends at the Kedarnath shrine, which sits at the base of a snow-bound Himalayan massif at an altitude of 11,400 feet.

The only way into the valley, a mule track that existed before the flood, is full of slush and is not navigable. Around 300-400 persons continue to remain stranded at Ram Bada, a mid-way halt. The same number is believed to be trapped at Jungle Chatti, another village en route. Special Forces of the Indian Army and 5 Sikh Regiment, which is combing through the mountainous jungles for survivors, located these survivors.

A Brigadier involved in the operations says: “We will evacuate everybody by tomorrow if weather holds. But rain is slated to restart on June 24.”

He says it is difficult to make an estimate of the number of fatalities. An Army pilot who has been flying in the valley over the past four days says the number of dead may be in hundreds but “guessing can be erroneous. It is clear that people have been washed away and more may be buried under the debris and slush”.

When The Tribune team reached the flood-ravaged location this morning, the stench was overbearing. Helicopters have been airlifting injured, who are hungry, cold and frightened. The old and the infirm are in a bad shape.

The scene at the helicopter bases of Guptkashi and Gauchar is equally gut-wrenching. While little children who have made it alive look for their missing parents, some rescued couples plead with the authorities to send back helicopters to fetch their children.

Paramedics calm them down with water, lime drink, note down their names and inform the civil authorities, while jawans go about handing out biscuits, painkillers, water, tea and roll out stretchers for the seriously injured.

Purshottam (47) from Maharashtra was picked up from Ram Bada by an Army helicopter. The moment he landed at the base, he went hysterical asking his wife to look out for “doctor sahib” - probably a relative of theirs. A lone woman survivor from a group of 40 anxiously scribbles the phone number of a relative.

For now, the rescue teams are concentrating between Ram Bada and Gauri Kund. North of Ram Bada towards Kedarnath, personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police are using a trekking route to rescue people.