It had been raining since the previous day (July 19) in Dharali, Harsheel area of Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India. A Prakash old couple from Tikapur municipality-8 of Kailali used to rent a room in a house near Dharali market. He reached Dharali with his wife for wage labor and was preparing to rest after having lunch on 20th of July due to rain.

There was a rumbling sound inside his room at the foot of the hill near the Dharali market. From outside, it looked like the river Kheerganga was carrying rocks. Then he shouted to his wife Parvati who was inside and ran towards a nearby high hill. At that time he tried to call his brother Ramesh who was in Dharali market. At that time, the phone could not be contacted. His brother and daughter-in-law Priya are now missing. "We had not run up the hill, the Dharali market was completely washed away, before we could blink an eye, the market turned into a swamp," the old man said while informing about the devastation caused by the flood that occurred after the "cloud burst" in Dharali, "the house where my brother lives is not known." 

Prakash and Ramesh stayed in separate rooms as they had gone with their wives. Among them who had gone to Dharali 4 months ago for employment, the room of Prakash and other relatives was near the market and at a slightly higher place. Ramesh's room was near Dharali, near the Kheerganga river. He said that even though the people living nearby managed to escape, those living in the middle of the market did not have time to escape at that time. 

The three brothers along with Prakash, Ramesh and younger Tapendra had reached there 4 months ago to pick and carry apples. They were doing other wage work there as the apple picking season had not yet started. Some of those who left here were working in road construction, house construction and hotels. 

According to Prakash, 9 old people including his uncle were in Dharali. After the disappearance of brother Ramesh and daughter-in-law Priya, search operations are now underway. Prakash's father Neem Bahadur and mother Payoli are the only ones in the house. Prakash and younger Tapendra are being told to return home, but they are not obeying. "Now they are digging and searching for the missing, there is hope that the brother and daughter-in-law will be found," said Prakash, "How can you go home after leaving like this?" 

Uncle Man Bahadur's family is also together. The rooms where Prakash and his uncle were living were also flooded. Prakash says that all the clothes, food and the money earned by the wages were taken away by the flood. "There is nothing left except the clothes on the body," he said.

Prakash told that the earnings of nine people for four months were about two lakh Indian rupees. Now the local administration has run a community kitchen for the victims. The old man said that sometimes they eat in the kitchen and sometimes they cook it themselves. "There is a shortage of food, we don't have a place to stay, we are living in a warehouse for storing apples. The old family has been going to Dharali in search of work for three years. They used to pick and carry apples according to the season and cut apples and cut trees. Apart from that, at other times, he was working in the construction of roads, houses, and hotels as well. 

Karna Bahadur Singh of Taligaon, Kushe rural municipality-2 of Jajarkot who went to treat his mother, went missing there. He kept his mother at his uncle's dera in Rishikesh and reached Dharali where his brother Ganesh was working. His brother Ganesh has been working there as a daily wage worker for three years. 

Ganesha was sweating in Dharali to collect the treatment expenses after his daughter Yamuna had a hole in her heart. The next Faughan-Chaithir took time to undergo heart surgery on his daughter in Rajasthan. "The brother who came to treat the mother is missing due to a landslide, from where the mother is asking where the brother is," said Ganesh, "We have said that the mother is missing due to a landslide, but the mother and son are saying when they will come." 

Ganesh's brother Surendra also works as a laborer in Gangotridham, which is 20/25 km from Dharali. Now both Ganesh and Surendra are searching for their brother in Dharali. Ganesha and Karna lived in the same room in Dharali. On the day of the flood, Karna had gone to the beach market of Dharali with his friend to make an account of his work. Ganesh was in the room. 

Ganesha ran away to a high hill when he realized that there was a flood. He also called Dai that he would run away soon. But there was no call. In the blink of an eye, when the bustling market of Dharali turned into chaos, he lost hope that his brother was still alive. "Now the search is going on, even if only a body is found, we would have done the last rites and returned home," Songish said.

Even the wages received by brother Surendra in Gangotridham were kept by Karna himself, so the problem became more serious after the flood took them away. "Food has been arranged by the administration here, but there is no place to stay," says Ganesh, "returning home means not having a single rupee in the pocket, how to reach Nepal." Friends are pleading for expenses until they reach home. But due to the flood, all those in Dharali are homeless.