A landslide in Kedarnath yatra route killed more than a dozen of people.

At least a dozen people have gone missing after three shops were washed away in the Mandakini river because of a landslide near Gaurikund on the Kedarnath yatra route in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, a senior official said. The incident took place at Daat Puliya on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

At least a dozen people are feared missing after three shops were washed away in the river due to a landslide near Gauri Kund,” Chamoli District Disaster Management Officer (DDMO) Nandan Singh Rajwar said, adding that those missing are believed to be the shopkeepers, and not pilgrims.

Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the police department and district administration are carrying out rescue and search operations. 

The Rudraprayag district administration has released a list of people who are missing, including a Nepali family of seven. They have been identified as Ashu (23), Priyanshu Chamoli (18), Ranbir Singh (28), Vinod (26), Mulayam (26), and seven members of the Nepali family – Amar Bohra (29), wife Anita Bohra (26), and their five minor children.

SDRF officials said they had to temporarily halt the rescue and search operation due to continuous rainfall and boulder falls. 

“On Friday morning, we restarted the operation to search for the missing persons,” SDRF media in-charge Lalita Negi said, adding that one team was also conducting a search operation at Kund Barrage, 2km downstream from the site of the landslide. 

The India Meteorological Department in Dehradun has issued a yellow alert for all 13 districts in Uttarakhand for the next four days. 

Amid monsoon, the number of pilgrims flocking to the Kedarnath shrine has substantially reduced due to fear of rain-related incidents.