Despite brave efforts by India's armed forces, the weather in northern India is hampering rescue operations in Uttarakand state. On Sunday, 12000 people were lifted on choppers and brought to safety, but another 15,000 are awaiting rescue. Most of them are believed to be pilgrims and tourists.

With a forecast for heavy rains on Monday, rescue personnel scurried over the weekend to get as many people to rescue camps in Dehradun. In one of the biggest operations in history, approximately 80,000 people were brought to safety after roads and homes were destroyed.

Experts say that the weather over the next four days will determine the progress of rescue teams. "There's a lot of cloud cover in the Kumaon region. We expect the clouds to spread to the Garhwal region as well... The southern region is likely to see heavy rainfall," BP Yadav, Director, Meteorological Department told NDTV news

Monday's rescue will be localized to Harsil, Kedarnath, and Guptkashi. Following multiple landslides and rains at Chamoli and Gauchr districts, operations to airlift the stranded have been suspended.

India's Air Force picked up 3000 people using helicopters on Sunday. The operation is believed to be the biggest of its kind in country's history.

Yashpal Arya, Uttarakhand Minister announced that an informal count of casualties add up to 680 and that he believes about five thousand could have been buried under the rubble from homes, and roads destroyed by the floods.

"We have rescued all we found, there may be a few have yet to be spotted, major rescue operations over... Process of identifying and recovering bodies to begin... Reconstruction will be a long process," Superintendent of Police in Rudraprayag, Bikramjit Singh told NDTV.

The NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) has a implemented a communication system to track survivors. The Department of Home Ministry has added 25 satellite phones and another fifty has been ordered.