Uttarakhand: Rescuers scour avalanche site as weather clears up

Fifty-five Border Roads Organisation (BRO) labourers were trapped under the avalanche on Friday and 33 of them were rescued

Dehradun: Rescuers resumed the search for 22 labourers trapped under several feet of snow in the high-altitude Mana village in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Saturday morning as the weather cleared up.

Choppers are likely to be roped in for the operation if the weather permits, an official said. Fifty-five Border Roads Organisation (BRO) labourers were trapped under the avalanche on Friday and 33 of them were rescued. Rain and snowfall hampered the rescue efforts and the operation was suspended as the night fell.

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The snowslide, which buried the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath, rolled down early on Friday morning. Private and IAF choppers will aid the rescue efforts on Saturday if the weather permits. The nearest airstrip at Gauchar has been readied for the purpose, Chamoli District Disaster Management Officer N K Joshi said.

It is a little cloudy at the moment but once the weather becomes favourable, the helicopters will be pressed into service, he said. Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel based in Mana have resumed the rescue operation, he added.

A let-up in rain and snowfall can help speed up efforts to trace the 22 labourers who have been trapped under the snow for more than 24 hours now. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is also likely to visit the avalanche site.

According to a list released by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, the trapped labourers are from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir, among other states. The list has 10 labourers’ names, without mentioning the states they belong to.

Disaster Management Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman said on Friday that the task is challenging as there is seven feet of snow near the avalanche site.

More than 65 personnel are engaged in the rescue operations, he said. Located three kilometres from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres.