6 days ago
Birthday trip turns into ordeal: 4 youths stranded after car swept away in Uttarkashi floods, survive night with bare minimum, rescued by Army
DEHRADUN: What was meant to be a quiet birthday trip to the hills became a test of survival for four young men - two university students and two of their friends heading to the Gangotri shrine after Tuesday's flash flood in Dharali swept away their vehicle, phones, and belongings somewhere near Harsil.
The group survived the night without contact with the outside world, stranded in a stretch of the Himalayas that had, within minutes, transformed from a pilgrimage route into a disaster zone, before they were rescued by Army personnel.
Amritansh Kumar, from Lucknow, had turned 21 on Saturday and decided to mark the occasion with a trip to Gangotri. A final-year BCA student at DIT University, Dehradun, Amritansh was joined by Alok Gangwar from Bareilly, who took two of his friends along.
They left Dehradun late Monday and reached Uttarkashi by nightfall. By morning, they were headed into the hills.
That afternoon, somewhere along the road between Uttarkashi and Harsil, they were hit by a sudden flash flood. Later, their families would learn that their car had been swept off the road and that the four had barely escaped in time. But for much of that day, and all of the night that followed, no one knew where they were or whether they had made it.
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"We tried calling them after we saw the news, but none of the phones were reachable," said Amritansh's older brother, Aadarsh Kumar, who came from Lucknow to Dehradun on Wednesday by train. "There was no word until this (Wednesday) morning."
When the call finally came, it was brief. Their network was patchy. The Army had reached them. Aadarsh said, "They told us they were being kept in a temporary camp. They couldn't talk much. But they sounded okay. That was enough."
A second phone call on Wednesday evening clarified that the four, along with others rescued, had been brought to Uttarkashi in an M-17 helicopter and will come to Dehradun by road. They are expected to reach the capital on Thursday.
