After an initial delay due to unfavourable weather conditions, rescue work in Badrinath area of flood-hit Uttarakhand resumed on Friday, and nearly 200 pilgrims have so far been evacuated from the shrine, officials said.
Helicopters started flying sorties to evacuate the pilgrims from the area.
Efforts are also being made on war-footing to ensure supply of essential relief material to over 600?villages in Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi districts, which are cut off after the floods.
2,379 metric tonnes of wheat and 2,875 metric tonnes of rice has so far been dispatched to these villages.
The frequently changing weather is hampering work as the relief material can be supplied only by air, officials said.
However, all steps are being taken to ensure enough supply of foodgrains, kerosene and LPG to flood-hit villages, they said.
Road network in Uttarakhand has been badly damaged in the floods, with 259 roads damaged in Tehri, 139 in Dehradun, 132 in Uttarkashi, 110 in Chamoli and 71 in Rudraparayag district.
Meanwhile, over 200 families living along the banks of Bhagirathi river have been asked to move to safer places following a rise in water level.
The MeT department, however, has sent a word of assurance, and said the rise is mainly due to melting of glaciers with the sun showing up, and there is no flood threat.
Uttarakhand MeT department Director Anand Sharma said the snow in upper reaches was melting with the sun coming out, and this was increasing water level in rivers.
He asserted there is "nothing to worry about, as it will not create any flood situation."
"We are just expecting light showers, but no heavy rains, nothing of that sort, just light showers here and there," Sharma said.
Amarnath Yatra halted
Bad weather has compelled authorities to halt the Amarnath Yatra at Pahalgaon and Baltal base camps and stopped retrieval of bodies buried in the debris and cremation at Kedarnath and Guptakashi.
With fewer pilgrims stranded in Badrinath now, the focus is on evacuating them as early as possible and supplying relief material to the affected 600 villages in the worst-hit Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi districts, officials say.
ASI team to visit Kedarnath
In the worst-hit Kedarnath region, cremation of bodies is on in full swing to minimise chances of an epidemic outbreak.
Till now, last rites of 34 bodies has been performed and the cremation of 12 more bodies pulled out from the debris will be conducted soon.
Meanwhile, a team of experts from Archaeological Survey of India will visit the Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand to assess the quantum of damage caused by the flood fury and restoration required for the shrine.
A team of five experts from Dehradun and Delhi will be the part of the exercise for the revered temple which bore the brunt of floods and landslides triggered by the deluge in the hill state on June 16.
The state government had sought help from the ASI to assess the damage caused to the shrine.
Over 8000 troops deployed
The defence forces have deployed around 50 helicopters and over 8,000 troops in flood-hit Uttarakhand to rescue 2,000 people stranaded in the state, including Badrinath and Harsil.
The IAF has deployed 37 choppers along with 13 helicopters of the Army. Together, they have flown 84 sorties in the last 24 hours for evacuating the stranded pilgrims in the state, a defence ministry release said.
The armed forces have been successful in bringing out over 650 people from the pilgrimage town of Badrinath and Harsil in the last 24 hours, it said.
In the operations which started on June 17, the two forces have deployed over 60 choppers which have flown 2,518 sorties and overall evacuated around 46,000 people from the higher reaches of the state.
Meanwhile, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne received the bodies of the five IAF personnel who were killed in a helicopter crash on Tuesday.
The Airforce also carried out a mission using its ALH Dhruv choppers in Gaurikund to bring the bodies from the crash site for postmortem and for DNA analysis at Dehradun.
Wing Commander Daryll Castellino, Flight Lieutenants Tapan Kapoor and K Praveen, Junior Warrant Officer AK Singh and Sergeant Sudhakar Yadav were among the 20 people who lost their lives in the chopper crash.
