By Sunil Kataria
BAREILLY, India, Aug 20 (Reuters) - India began evacuating thousands of villagers along two river valleys in the Himalayas on Thursday as officials and relief agencies said the death toll in a series of landslides could cross 300.
Relatives in the army garrison town of Bareilly waited anxiously for news of 60 Hindu pilgrims who were among more than 200 people missing and feared dead in a huge landslide that hit the makeshift camp of Malapa early on Tuesday.
The death toll in a landslip that hit another village rose to 26. Smaller landslides were reported elsewhere.
Incessant rains, heavy fog and knee-deep mud cut rescuers off totally from the area, officials said.
Rescue workers and pilots of army helicopters waiting to go into the Malapa disaster site were thwarted by blocked roads, an overcast sky and poor communications.
Manoj Mathur, secretary-general of the Indian Red Cross Society, told Reuters in New Delhi that medical workers and rescue volunteers feared unidentified travellers and villagers could raise the toll.
"They fear that the death toll may cross even 300,'' he said.
Sitaram Meena, the top civilian official in Bareilly district, said only 10 people had been rescued and 10 bodies recovered in Malapa, where the pilgrims camped on their way to the holy Mansarovar Lake in Tibet.
The pilgrimage, an annual event coordinated by India's foreign ministry, was suspended after the landslide.
Mansarovar lake and the flanking Mount Kailash are revered by Hindus as the abode of their god Shiva. The pilgrims have to walk for several days to reach the spot across the China border.
The first group of rescue workers trekked 60 km (38 miles) towards Malapa on Wednesday but made little progress.
"Near the danger area, one cannot even walk. So they have to lie down and inch their way up,'' Meena said.
"There is also a communications problem. They (rescuers) were operating through wireless sets and now they can't even charge their batteries,'' Meena said.
Top state civil servant Naresh Dayal said in the state capital of Lucknow that officials had on Wednesday night ordered villagers out of low-lying areas in the valleys of the Alaknanda and Mandakini rivers and the downstream Ganges.
"We have alerted the army and asked people to evacuate from all low-lying areas from Mansuna downstream,'' Dayal said. A landslide swept Mansuna village some 600 km (370 miles) from Lucknow on Wednesday, and 26 people were reported dead.
Officials faced the prospect of flooding as debris blocked the Mandakini river, forming a lake 400 feet (120 metres) wide.
Last week, 69 people were reported killed in landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the region sacred to Hindus.
A number of relatives of pilgrims missing in the landslide waited in Bareilly for news from the mountains.
"So far we have heard absolutely nothing, either way,'' said Anish Shah, 22, whose parents were among the group.
"It is a very uneasy feeling and a very difficult time for us,'' said Shah, who travelled from the western city of Pune.
"We have been told that whatever comes (bodies or survivors), will be brought here. So we are waiting,'' one relative said.
District official Manjul Kumar Joshi said the authorities had planned to airlift the survivors and bodies to Bareilly.
"Hospitals are ready for any contingency, coffins have also been arranged,'' he said.
A cloudburst and eight days of torrential rain had loosened rocks in the earthquake-prone region, which has suffered widespread deforestation, and likely triggered the landslides, officials said.