Uttarakhand: Heavy rainfall in Sonprayag halts Kedarnath Yatra once again

Credits: PTI

Rudraprayag: Amid the ongoing heavy rainfall from Sonprayag onwards in Uttarakhand, the Kedarnath Yatra has been stopped once again for ensuring the safety of the pilgrims amid the apprehensions of untoward incidents, the Rudraprayag district administration informed on Saturday.

Earlier on June 30, the Rudraprayag police at the Sirobgad area had informed about the district being closed till 4 AM after the debris and stones kept falling from the hill, which resulted in the traffic being jammed on both sides of the highway.

Badrinath highway was also blocked due to the falling of several boulders at the Birahi and Pagal Nala area, following the overnight rainfall on June 25.

Meanwhile, on May 17, the traffic movement was disrupted on the Badrinath route, NH7, near Panchpulia in Karnaprayag after the boulders fell from the hill. As per the Badri-Kedar Temple Committee on June 18, atleast 7 lakh 27 thousand pilgrims had visited Kedarnath since its doors were opened on May 6.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted isolated heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand on Sunday and Wednesday (July 10 and July 13).

The IMD has also forecasted extremely heavy rainfall over Uttarakhand for today (Saturday, July 9).
"Isolated heavy rainfall very likely over Jammu & Kashmir on 09th and 10th; Himachal Pradesh on 10th, 12th and 13th and over Uttarakhand on 10th and 13th July 2022," IMD said in a tweet."...Isolated extremely heavy rainfall also likely over Uttarakhand on 09th July 2022," it added.