After 17 days of turmoil, Uttarakhand's Silkyara falls silent

UTTARKASHI: The little-known village of Silkyara, which suddenly became a news hotspot during the massive 17-day multi-agency rescue operation, once again donned its usual quiet look on Wednesday.

Exhausted rescue personnel, who worked relentlessly in cramped space, were wrapping up. "All the efforts paid off. Now, we are at peace," one of them said. A tunnel worker chimed in, "We're happy our friends are out. But if safety norms hadn't been flouted and escape routes were in place to facilitate rescue work, this situation wouldn't have occurred. We plan to discuss this with the authorities. Without safety measures, it'll be difficult for us to continue working here."

Several people who were involved in the rescue operation visited temples and expressed their gratitude to the local deity.

A group of technicians of Trenchless Engineering Services, which owns the American auger machine and had to be called in, were all set to return home on Wednesday. A team member, Shambhu Mishra, told TOI, "The past few days have been very stressful, we barely got a chance to sleep or eat properly. Last night's success took away all the weariness. In the morning, we went to a nearby temple and offered our gratitude to the local deity."

Meanwhile, many locals, like 34-year-old Naveen Bijalwan, a hotelier from Mahar Gaun village near the Silkyara tunnel, were cleaning their restaurants and lodges so that they can quickly wrap up and go back home for the winter break till the Char Dham yatra season next year.

Naveen would have shut his lodge, located adjacent to the Yamunotri highway, on November 15 when the portals of the Yamunotri shrine were closed. But he had to keep it open for some more days due to the sudden rush of people from the administration and media after the tunnel mishap. Although this helped him make extra money over the past two weeks, he isn't happy.

"I don't feel good about this extra income as all those who stayed here were under extreme stress. I've decided to donate a part of this money to a temple of our local deity who finally rescued the workers and made it possible for people to return home happily. I pray such an incident doesn't happen again," Bijalwan said.