Gulbarga, July 4, 2013: “We had lost all hopes of returning alive. We had resigned to our fate to die a cruel death amid the inhospitable climate in an alien land, before help finally arrived,” said 60-year-old Shantabai Akshanti, who along with her husband, Shashikant Akshanti, returned to Gulbarga on Wednesday after 15 days from the flood-hit Badrinath in Uttarakhand. “Till June 25, we had some hope that the State government would rescue us, but when the authorities said their main concern was to rescue people stranded in Kedarnath, we lost all hopes. On June 28, we decided to take an Army jeep and walk a distance of around 8 km from Badrinath to Joshimath despite knowing that anything could happen to us. However, we thought it was better to take this route than live without medicines and adequate food,” Ms. Shantabai said.

She said Minister for Infrastructure Development and Information Santosh Lad, who was entrusted the responsibility of rescuing people from Karnataka, arrived in Badrinath and assured pilgrims from the State that they would be airlifted on June 29. He also promised to make arrangements for our travel to Bangalore, Ms. Shantabai said.

Mr. Shashikant said: “We shudder to think of the 15 days in Badrinath in the midst of rain, freezing cold, lack of food, medicines and drinking water.”

Operators who organised the tour for the couple along with another 80 persons had brought ration for five days. After it was exhausted, the pilgrims were entirely at the mercy of religious maths that provided one meal a day, he said.

“We had to pay Rs. 50 for a bucket of hot water, Rs. 150 for a kg of tomato and Rs. 5,000 for an LPG refill,” Mr. Shashikant said, adding that Badrinath looked like a ghost town with shops and hotels closed. “Tea was not available even for those who were willing to pay extra for it.”

Ms. Shantabai, who has hypertension and diabetes, said those who had health problems were the worst affected owing to severe shortage of medicines. “I used to stand in a queue for hours to get medicine for hypertension at the camp organised by the Army personnel,” she added.

Source: The Hindu, DT. July 4, 2013.