DEHRADUN: Dharali, a key stopover on the Gangotri Dham pilgrimage route, was completely devastated on Tuesday afternoon by a sudden surge of debris-laden water from the Khirganga River. The flash flood, carrying massive amounts of debris from the mountains, reportedly wiped out the entire village – market, houses, hotels, and all – in mere 34 seconds.Besides Dharali, cloudbursts were also reported in Harsil and Sukki. In Harsil, nine out of eleven Army personnel who went missing after a cloudburst remain untraced. While authorities acknowledge the potential for a rising death toll, uncertainty persists more than 24 hours after the calamity.SDRF, NDRF, ITBP, and Army teams are engaged in extensive rescue operations, having evacuated over 140 people so far. The ancient Kalp Kedar Mahadev Temple, a significant site connected to the Panch Kedar tradition and a major centre of local faith, was also buried under the debris.Amidst the ongoing relief and rescue efforts, environmentalists, social workers, and historians have expressed deep concern over the disaster, appealing to the government to learn crucial lessons from it.Historian and author Jai Singh Rawat told this newspaper that the Khirganga, a tributary of the Bhagirathi, has a long history of destructive floods. “Emerging from the Srikant peak, the Khirganga has been notorious for its devastating floods,” he stated, recalling a 19th-century deluge that buried 240 temples, once part of the Kalp Kedar temple arena.
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