Uttarakhand avalanche: search operations resume, 14 mountaineers rescued

Fourteen members of a mountaineering team which had gone missing after being hit by an avalanche at Draupadi Ka Danda peak in Uttarakashi district were rescued on Wednesday as a multi-agency rescue operation aided by IAF helicopters resumed.

Principal of the Uttarkashi-based Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) Col Amit Bisht had said on Tuesday that ten bodies were spotted out of which four had been recovered. However, police confirmed the death of four.

Earlier in the day, the Uttarakhand Police released a list of 28 trainee mountaineers who were missing in the avalanche at the height of 17,000 feet.

Sub Divisional Magistrate, Bhatwari, Chattar Singh Chauhan said 14 members of the team out of which six had sustained minor injuries in the avalanche were airlifted to Matli in two sorties, Eight more rescued in another sortie are alright, he said, adding they are being sent back to the NIM.

Out of the 14 rescued so far 10 are trainees and four instructors, he said, adding NDRF, SDRF, ITBP and NIM are jointly conducting the search and rescue operations.

A search is on to find the rest of the 41-member team of mountaineers who have been missing since the avalanche occurred at 8.45 am on Tuesday.

The missing are said to be stuck in the crevasse in Dokriani Bamak glacier where the avalanche struck. The trainees hail from West Bengal, Delhi, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Assam, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

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The bodies recovered include that of mountaineer Savita Kanswal who had climbed the Everest in May this year. She was from Lonthru village in Uttarkashi district. Search and rescue operations resumed on Wednesday morning with four ITBP jawans dispatched in Cheetah and ALH helicopters to Dokrani Glacier.

The rescue operations had to be halted due to darkness and inclement weather on Tuesday.