India flood rescue operations near end

Rescuers in India's flood-hit Uttarakhand state worked Saturday to free more than 500 people stranded in the town of Badrinath as efforts elsewhere turned to supplying cut-off villages and recovering bodies, dpa reported. Flash floods and landslides in the mountainous northern state that began two weeks ago have left at least 800 people confirmed dead and an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 missing. Uttarakhand state Legislative Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal told reporters the death toll could exceed 10,000. "More than 1,000 reports have been filed with the police about missing persons so far," said Puja Rawat, an official at the state's disaster management unit. "The process is ongoing and the numbers are rising fast." Thousands of people, including tourists and pilgrims, were stranded in the state's higher elevations as floods and landslides swept away roads and bridges and buried buildings. More than 100,000 people have been rescued so far in operations by air and foot over the past fortnight with local media reporting more than 1,000 still stranded. An estimated 550 people were stuck in Badrinath, a Hindu pilgrimage site, Rawat said. Rescue helicopters worked in spurts Saturday as bad weather grounded the choppers for hours at a stretch. Several roads were reopened in lower-lying areas, and food, drinking water, medicine and other supplies were being sent to inaccessible villages, officials said. A shortage of grain and other essentials was reported in more than 600 villages in the northern districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi, state-run Doordarshan television reported. Clearing debris, identifying the dead and conducting mass cremations to avoid epidemics was under way in the worst-hit Kedarnath region.