BENGALURU: “I have been going to Amarnath since 18 years. This is the first time I got stranded. The landslides had also not deterred our spirits earlier. This time even as there was no ice, as usual, the sudden heavy down pour created the havoc,” recollects Chaitanya TS, a resident of Tavarekere, who is one of the 11 members who returned to Bengaluru late on Saturday night.
Chaitanya recollects: “There always used to be ice. This time the ice was less and the Kargil hill behind the Amarnath hill was also visible. As per the forecast, there was to be very heavy rainfall from 8-11 July. When we reached on July 5, after a discussion with Shrine Board officials, it was decided that from 3-5 am mules and dolis will pass by and then from 5.30 am onwards foot Yatris will go. We had returned back after darshan, but those who were enroute around 11am got stranded when there was a cloud burst.”
With the help of rescue teams, they left by bus to Srinagar and took 4.30 pm flight on Saturday to reach Mumbai and reached Bengaluru at 11.30 pm. He said around 500 more people are stranded in Domal and Balta check posts. He is one of the 350 Yatris from Karnataka who were stranded in Amarnath in the cloudburst on Friday.
Karnataka State Emergency Operation Center (SEOC) had received 57 calls from relatives of Yatris who had gone in groups to Amarnath. Officials from Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority said while most of them were from Bengaluru urban and Ramanagara, the others are from Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapura, Mysuru, Mandya, Shivamogga, Bagalkot, Dakshina Kannada, Bidar, Kalaburgi and Kolar districts.
On Saturday morning IAF deployed ALH Dhruv and Mi-17 helicopters to Amarnath Shrine site and AN-32 and IIyushin-76 transport aircrafts as standby in Chandigarh. Umashankar, Principal Secretary, Revenue Department told The New Sunday Express that all those from Karnataka who had gone to Amarnath were contacted and were safe. There have been no casualties of Karnataka travelers. While some travelers are keen to continue their journey, some others are returning back and some others have shown interest to stay back and complete their shrine visit. The major problem which relatives and the department faced was contacting Yatris, due to network issues. Postpaid network works rather than prepaid.
A team of ten advocates from Mysuru who had gone to Amarnath were airlifted by the Indian Army helicopters to safer places in the region. They later travelled to Katra in Jammu and Kashmir, then to Amritsar before reaching Delhi. It is said that they fly to Bengaluru on Sunday and then to Mysuru. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Kalaburagi Bhimashankar Teggalli told TNSE that 43 persons from Kalaburgi including the pontiff of Mutyan Babalad Mutt Shri Gurupadalinga Mahashivayogi Swamiji who went to Amarnath were rescued. Bidar DC Govind Reddy said all nine pilgrims who had gone were safe and the government was working on bringing them back.