Guwahati: The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) reported on Thursday that 29 further trainees are still missing, even though nine bodies that were trapped in the Uttarkashi avalanche have so far been found and retrieved.
The NIM reports that four of the nine bodies recovered today were already taken down on Tuesday (October 4) and Wednesday (October 5).
After being trapped on Draupadi’s Danda-II mountain peak in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi after an avalanche struck them on Tuesday, mountaineers from the High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir, joined the operation with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and NIM.
However, extra teams have been dispatched from ITBP Matli in Uttarkashi to the advance base camp.
At 16,000 feet, a trial landing was successfully performed as well as the preparation of an advance helicopter landing ground.
The advance helipad has been constructed at a great height, and helicopters are currently engaged in rescue operations, according to ITBP PRO Vivek Pandey.
The ITBP PRO stated that although efforts to locate the missing mountaineers are being delayed by poor weather, “the dead bodies are present at the base and some of them are expected to be taken down today itself.”
The avalanche survivors in Uttarkashi described their terrifying ordeals on Wednesday.
Deep Thakur, a trainee from Gujarat who survived the accident and is currently receiving treatment at the local hospital, recalled that the avalanche struck suddenly as he and his companions were ascending Draupadi’s Danda Peak for a summit at around 9.45 am. As a result, they all fell into crevasses that were about 60 feet deep, where they struggled for three hours to stay alive.
The only plan, according to another survivor, trainee from Mumbai named Akash Lalvani, was to climb to the top of Draupadi’s Danda and then descend after getting his picture taken there because the weather was also clear. However, the unexpected landslide left them with an unforgettably painful sorrow.
About 41 students and teachers from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering were trapped by Draupadi’s avalanche on Tuesday at an elevation of more than 5,000 metres in the Danda of Dokrani glacier.
District magistrate Abhishek Ruhela on Thursday prohibited hiking operations in Uttarkashi for the following three days in order to protect the safety of the trekking and mountaineering teams.
Due to an advisory from the India Meteorological Department for heavy rain in the state over the next few days, Ruhela has prohibited these activities in Uttarkashi from October 6 (today) to October 8 (Saturday).