The warning, issued by the state meteorological department, was not picked up in right earnest even by its own headquarters, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which could perhaps have alerted the Centre and the state about the impending disaster.
June 14 : The first of the warnings of "heavy rain" was issued in the agro-advisory bulletin.
The executive director of the Disaster Management and Mitigation Centre was also warned of "heavy rains" on the same day.
June 15: a full day before the natural disaster, the weather report predicted "heavy rain during the next 72 hours". This was issued to the DM of Rudraprayag as well as the ITBP. More crucially, the advisory with this report said, "yatris (pilgrims) are requested to get back to safer places".
June 15 again: A special advisory related to the Char Dham yatra was also issued by the Met department which had specifically predicted "heavy to very heavy rains" for June 16 and June 17 and had clearly mentioned the danger: "Warning - Char Dham yatris are advised to postpone yatra by four days."
This advisory was for the Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamnotri and Joshimath regions — all of which ultimately faced landslides and rains.
June 16 : With no response from the state administration, the state's met department again issued an advisory to various authorities on June 16, shortly before noon, many hours before the destruction, which started towards late evening.
The weather report for the Kedarnath and Badrinath regions once again had an advisory, "yatris to get back to safer places. Heavy rains likely during the next 36 hours." The district magistrate of Rudraprayag and the state's chief secretary were also alerted.
