NEW DELHI, Mar 2: The multi-agency operation to search and rescue the avalanche-hit 54 Border Road Organisation (BRO) workers working at a road project site in Mana village, was completed on Sunday with the recovery of the body of the last missing worker which took the death toll in the tragedy to eight.
The avalanche hit the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath on Friday, burying 54 workers inside eight containers and a shed. Earlier, it was believed that the total number of avalanche-hit labourers was 55 but it was reduced by one as one of them was found to be on unauthorised leave and had reached home safely.
Fifty labourers were pulled out of snow by Friday but four of them later succumbed to injuries in hospital. Army doctors said 46 workers have been brought to the military hospital in Jyotirmath while one with spinal cord injury was airlifted to AIIMS, Rishikesh. Three of them are critical, Lt Col DS Maldhya said.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the Uttarakhand State Emergency Operation Centre here to take an update on the rescue operation. Speaking to reporters, he said, “The ground penetrating radar (GPR) system is being sent to the avalanche site and help of modern tools like thermal imaging camera and victim locating camera are being taken to trace the labourers still missing. The weather may turn bad on Monday again. The effort is to trace the missing on Sunday itself.”
Six helicopters – three of the Indian Army Aviation Corps, two of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and a civil chopper hired by the Army – were engaged in the operation. Located three kilometres from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres.
Army officials said the rescue operation on Saturday was mostly carried out by the Army and IAF helicopters as the approach road was blocked by snow at several points, making vehicular movement nearly impossible. The priority was to bring the rescued workers to the Army hospital in Jyotirmath and look for the four missing workers, they said. More than 200 personnel from the disaster management authority, ITBP, BRO, NDRF, SDRF, IAF, district administration, health department and fire brigade were engaged in the rescue operations.
(Manas Dasgupta)
