Landslide leaves 45 Kailash Manasarovar pilgrims stuck in Pithoragarh
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
The pilgrims started their journey from Delhi on Friday and are scheduled to cross the Lipulekh Pass on July 10. They reached Dharchula from Tanakpur on Saturday and were slated to leave for Gunji, a crucial point on the route to both Kailash Manasarovar and Adi Kailash, at 9am on Sunday. However, a massive overnight landslide at Tawaghat blocked the Dharchula–Lipulekh road.
"All vehicular movement was stopped," said Bhupendra Singh Mahar, district disaster management officer of Pithoragarh.
The information reached Dharchula early Sunday morning, prompting authorities to temporarily suspend the yatra.
The tehsil administration, along with road-clearing teams, reached Tawaghat and supervised debris removal. The route remained blocked for several hours and was finally cleared around noon, Mahar confirmed.
D S Bisht, manager of a tourist guest house in Dharchula where the pilgrims stayed during the halt, said, "The yatra was put on hold for around five hours.
After the road was cleared, the first batch departed Dharchula shortly after 2pm and reached Gunji, which is around 80 km away, by 6 pm. The pilgrims will stay in Gunji for two days to acclimatise before proceeding toward Lipulekh."
The landslide also impacted the Adi Kailash and Om Parvat Yatras, stranding several vehicles and pilgrims at Tawaghat. Officials later confirmed that vehicular movement had returned to normal later in the day.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
Separately, four Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel were injured — one seriously — when a slide struck their camp near the Ailagarh suspension bridge along the Tanakpur–Tawaghat highway. They were shifted to a hospital in Pithoragarh, while more than 100 vehicles, including yatri convoys and official units, were stranded for hours.
Authorities said the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and local administration are actively monitoring the yatra and assisting with logistics and safety. With more batches expected in the coming days, officials are keeping a close watch on weather conditions and road accessibility in the region. The stretch from Dharchula to Gunji has been blocked more than ten times in the past month alone due to recurring pre-monsoon landslides.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
4 hours ago
- The Hindu
After 5 years, India to issue visas to Chinese tourists
India will start issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals after a gap of five years, the Indian Embassy in Beijing announced on Wednesday. The announcement, that was called 'positive' by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, marks another step in normalising India-China ties ruptured by the military standoff at the Line of Actual Control and Galwan clashes in 2020. According to an official notice posted online and on Chinese social media, the visas can be applied for online beginning from Thursday and obtained after an appointment at the Indian Embassy in Beijing and consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Amidst the bonhomie, Beijing rejected concerns in Delhi and Dhaka about China's latest dam project on the Yarlung Sangpo or Brahmaputra River in Tibet and said it had communicated with both the governments. Responding to a question about the visa issuance on Wednesday, a Chinese MFA spokesperson said that Beijing had taken note of the 'positive move'. 'Easing cross-border travel is widely beneficial. China will maintain communication and consultation with India to further facilitate travel between the two countries,' said spokesperson Guo Jiakun in Beijing. After the Covid pandemic and then violence between the two militaries after China amassed troops at the LAC, both countries had cancelled all flights and most visa services between them. China restored visa applications for Indian students in 2022 and for business and tourism purposes subsequently. It issued an estimated 85,000 visas between January and June 2025. India had issued visas in business and student categories, but not for tourism until now. According to the Ministry of Tourism figures in 2019, before the lockdown, more than 3,00,000 Chinese tourists had visited India and about 8,69,000 Indian tourists had gone to China. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Kazan last October and agreed to restore ties, a series of high-level meetings discussed the next steps, including the start of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra. Most recently, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar travelled to China on July 14-16, and met with his counterpart Wang Yi, and also called on Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice-President Hang Zheng, before attending the SCO Council for Foreign Ministers. In an interview to The Hindu, Chinese Ambassaor Xu Feihong said that resuming the Kailash pilgrimage was 'an important initiative taken by China to improve relations between the two countries', indicating that it was India's turn to take the next positive step. Both sides are also working on resuming direct flights between the two countries soon, understood to be announced before PM Modi's visit to China for the SCO summit, which is expected on August 31-September 1, officials said. When asked by reporters about the hydropower project being constructed on the Yarlung Sangpo, Mr. Guo said that it was 'fully within China's sovereignty'. 'China is engaged in cooperation with downstream countries on sharing hydrological data, flood prevention and disaster reduction,' he said, adding that Beijing has had the 'necessary communication' with India and Bangladesh. Construction for the massive 60,000 MW Medog Hydropower station, set to be the world's largest, began last week, and was flagged off by Chinese Premier Li Qiang. In a response in Parliament, the government had said that India had 'registered its concerns' with China over the ecological and disaster risks of the project in December 2024, while the Bangladesh's Ministry of Water Resources had also requested Beijing's response on its concerns in March this year.
Indian Express
9 hours ago
- Indian Express
After a gap of five years, India resumes issuance of tourist visas to Chinese citizens
India has announced resuming issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals from this week, a move that comes as part of efforts to repair bilateral ties that came under severe strain following the military clashes in Galwan Valley. India had suspended issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals in 2020 largely due to Covid-19 pandemic but the restrictions continued in view of the eastern Ladakh border row. The Indian embassy in Beijing said Chinese nationals may apply for tourist visas from Thursday. In a notification, it also explained the required procedures to apply for the visas as well as documents required to be submitted at respective Indian visa application centres in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The decision by the Indian embassy to resume the tourist visas came nearly a week-and-half after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held extensive talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing. Jaishankar visited China on July 14-15 primarily to attend a conclave of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The external affairs minister also held talks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and conveyed to him that continued normalisation of bilateral ties can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes. In the last few months, India and China have initiated a number of measures to repair the bilateral ties that had severely nosedived following the deadly clashes between the two militaries in June 2020. The efforts to normalise the relations were initiated after the Indian and Chinese militaries ended their face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in October last year. In his opening remarks at the meeting with Wang, Jaishankar said the bilateral relationship requires both sides taking a 'far-seeing approach'. Last month, the two sides resumed the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra after a gap of nearly five years.
NDTV
12 hours ago
- NDTV
Indian Visas For Chinese Tourists From Tomorrow, After 5-Year Gap
India will resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens from July 24, its embassy in Beijing said on Wednesday, the first time in five years. In 2020, India had suspended all tourist visas in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19. In a statement, the Embassy of India in China said that Chinese citizens can apply for a tourist visa to India after completing an online application, scheduling an appointment and personally submitting their passport and other required documents to the Indian Visa Application Centers in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, in South China's Guangdong Province. "Please be informed that all passport withdrawal requests for applications submitted in India Visa Application Center in Beijing must be accompanied by a passport withdrawal letter..," the statement added. Travel between India and China was significantly disrupted in recent years amid the Covid-19 pandemic followed by diplomatic tensions over the 2020 Galwan clashes. While Beijing gradually resumed issuing visas to Indian students and businessmen, general travel remained restricted. Bilateral relations between the two countries had plunged to their lowest point since the 1962 war after the Galwan Valley clashes. Following a series of diplomatic and military talks, the two sides withdrew their troops from several friction along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. In October last, the two sides firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok, the last two friction points in eastern Ladakh. Days later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks in Kazan and took a number of decisions to improve the ties. Earlier this year, India and China explored ways to rebuild ties and agreed to initiate efforts to promote people-to-people exchanges, including arrangements for resumption of direct flights and resume Kailash Manasarovar Yatra this year. The Yatra was suspended since the outbreak of Covid-19. In April, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India and China are moving towards a "positive direction" in their ties and work needs to be done to normalise the relationship.
