Post News Network
Bhadrak, May 4: Emotions enveloped the railway station here Monday as 34 pilgrims of this district who were stuck at Pandukeswar, about 22 km from Badrinath in Uttarakhand, for two days due to heavy landslide reached the station.
Some returnees prostrated on the platform to express their gratitude towards Goddess Maa Bhadrakali for surviving the calamity while others applied the soil on their foreheads. The kin of the passengers, who thronged the station, were speechless after seeing their relatives alive. The survivors narrated their experiences of last two days to everyone.
Fifty four farmers’ representatives of Orissa had gone to attend a national level farmers’ meet in Uttarakhand. Thirty four of them went for a ‘darshan’ at Badrinath and were returning when they got stuck at Pandukeswar due to heavy landslide for two days and remained hungry.
Collector Laxminarayan Mishra and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan came learnt about the plight of the representatives from two scribes of Bhadrak who were among the victims. Following this, the devotees were airlifted and taken to Joshi math.
“The horrifying experience of landslide couldn’t be erased from the memory till last breath. We had no option but to pray the God,” Debendra Kumar Mohanty of Bhadrak said.
Another victim Ramamani Barik of Tihidi said that returning home was like re-birth.
“We never imagined we would be rescued in a helicopter from the hilly terrain. We feel blessed after reaching Bhadrak,” Barik said with a sigh of relief.