SDRF moves 6,500 pilgrims off Chirbasa after Kedarnath rockfall

Uttarakhand's State Disaster Response Force said more than 6,500 pilgrims, and 600 to 700 horses and mules, were brought through the blocked stretch near Chirbasa helipad on Monday after a landslide on Sunday cut the Gaurikund-Kedarnath trek. The slide hit about 2.5 kilometres above Gaurikund. A local resident died when a boulder struck him, police said.

On Sunday the district police stopped upward traffic at Sonprayag and Gaurikund and held returning walkers at Junglechatti. Stones kept falling from the hillside in rain, so the Public Works Department could not clear the path. The district administration posted a Hindi advisory at 1:55 p.m. on 13 September saying movement on the foot route near the helipad was fully stopped.

How Monday's walk-out worked

Weather improved overnight. Rain eased. The rockfall paused. Nandan Singh Rajwar, the district disaster management officer, said pilgrims moving from Bhimbali toward Gaurikund were sent through in phases. SDRF, the District Disaster Response Force, the police, Youth Maharashtra Force units listed on site briefings, and Aapda Mitra volunteers stood on the slope. Walkers were told not to halt under the loose face.

An SDRF team from the Sonprayag post, led by Sub-Inspector Ashish Dimri on the direction of Commandant Arpan Yaduvanshi, had reached the slide on Sunday. On Monday they treated the same ground as a controlled corridor rather than a closed road. PWD crews started lifting stones once the fall stopped. Police still described restoration as slow because the face above the track remains loose.

What the route is in this season

Kedarnath sits at the end of a steep walk from Gaurikund. Chirbasa is a known pinch point with a helipad used when the path fails. Phase two of the yatra is underway. Security had already been increased for that phase before the slide. The Alaknanda and Mandakini had run high last week after rain in Rudraprayag town and other hill blocks.

The 6,500 figure is an evacuation count for one day, not a population of the shrine. It includes people who had already worshipped and were walking down, and animals that carry loads on the same narrow cut. A death of one local resident is the only fatality on the official record from the slide itself.

The administration has not given a date for free movement without escorts. Until PWD says the face is stable, the useful instruction remains the one posted on Sunday: do not start the walk from Sonprayag or Gaurikund without permission. Monday proved that a weather window can empty the queue. It did not prove that the hillside is finished with the route.