Rage of the River: The Untold Story of Kedarnath Disaster

On 17 June 2013, a normally calm Mandakini came crashing down from the hills in Uttarakhand and destroyed everything in its path: houses, bridges, dams and the town of Kedarnath. Thousands of people perished and lakhs lost their livelihood. Three years after the disaster, stories from the valley-of pain and sorrow, the state government s indifference and the corporate goof-ups, and the courage and heroism shown by the locals in the face of an absolute catastrophe-still remain largely unheard of. While the government continues to remain in denial and chooses to ignore the environmental issues in Uttarakhand, the ravaged Kedarnath valley continues to haunt us-though the temple has been restored, given its religious importance and centrality to the local economy. NDTV journalist Hridayesh Joshi covered the floods in 2013, exposing the government s apathy and inefficiency. He was the first journalist to reach Kedarnath after the disaster and brought to light the stories from the mostremote parts of the state: areas cut off from the rest of the world. Woven into this haunting narrative is also the remarkable history of the ordinary people s struggle to save the state s ecology. Rage of the River is a riveting commentary on the socio-environmental landscape of Uttarakhand and is filled with vivid imagery of the calamity.