Uttarakhand avalanche toll rises to 7

The bodies of three more workers were recovered from the site of an avalanche in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday, taking the toll to seven, reported The Indian Express. One worker was still missing.

“Search by the Army is in progress for the last man,” The Indian Express quoted Lieutenant Colonel Manish Srivastava as saying. “Commander of the IBEX Brigade is at the site leading the rescue.”

The avalanche struck the site of a Border Roads Organisation project between Mana village and Mana Pass on Friday morning. A total of 54 workers were clearing snow at the site when the incident took place.

Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres.

On Sunday, Srivastava said that eight helicopters, including five from the Army, two from the Air Force and one civilian helicopter, had evacuated those rescued from the site to Joshimath Military Hospital for treatment.

“A drone-based ‘intelligent buried object detection system’ has been airlifted from Delhi and via Dehradun has reached Joshimath by MI-17 [helicopter] to assist the ongoing search and rescue operations,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that several forces, including the Army, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Air Force, the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force, were working…

Read more