Uttarakhand victim's family performs last rites with effigy

BOKARO: Family members of Tekochand Giri, after five months of wait, finally decided on Monday to bid adieu to the septuagenarian.
Giri went missing during the Kedarnath floods in July. After five months, all hopes of Giri's returning to Chirudih village in the district's Chandrapura block went bleak.
However, the family members did not get back his body too and they had to do the rituals by making an effigy of Giri, a first time in the village.
As many as 16 residents from Chirudih and nearby areas had gone for pilgrimage to Kedarnath on July 16 when rains ravaged the place.
Of the pilgrims, 13 returned after being stranded there for 10 days. It was Giri and two others, including Anant Giri and his wife Kishori Devi, who went traceless after the tragedy. Their family members left no stone unturned in looking for him in Uttarakhand, but in vain. Their last location was at Gaurikund.
Loknath Giri, elder son of the deceased said that he went to Uttarakhand in search of his father after the disaster, but was not able to find him any where.
"We knocked every door and searched all rescue camps and even displayed his photo but he was traceless. After a five month search we accepted the hard fact that he was dead and held his last rites for peace of his soul," said Loknath.
The rituals were performed in normal way as residents carried the effigy on their shoulders to the burning ghat where it was consigned to flames.
The villagers mourned while the family members including four sons and two daughters of the deceased too broke into tears. Now the kin of other two victims have also planned to organise similar rites soon.