A team of experts from Gulmarg in Jammu and Kashmir has also joined the operation to rescue 27 mountaineers who were trapped on Draupadi’s Danda-II mountain peak in Uttarakhand after being caught in an avalanche on Tuesday.
The expert team has joined the operation with the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). As per the SDRF’s information, the team will conduct its rescue operation at the High Altitude.
The teams had arrived at the Advance Base Camp to rescue the trainees of NIM Uttarkashi on Wednesday, where the SDRF Commandant Manikant Mishra told ANI that three teams would first reach the Intermediate Camp and 1.5 km away at the avalanche site tomorrow (on Thursday today) to rescue over 25 trainees and four bodies trapped at the avalanche site.
The officials of the Indian Air Force informed that they had deployed two helicopters from Sarsawa and Bareilly for the rescue operation with which several mountaineers were rescued from Base Camp located at about 12,000 ft to Matli helipad.
A day after four mountaineers lost their lives in the avalanche in Uttarkashi with several still missing, the survivors narrated their horrific experiences on Wednesday.
Deep Thakur, a trainee from Gujarat, who survived the accident while undergoing treatment at the district hospital, said that the avalanche came all of a sudden while he was climbing to Draupadi’s Danda Peak for a summit at around 9.45 am, due to which he along with his companions fell into the crevasses about 60 feet deep, where he struggled between death and life for about 3 hours.
On Wednesday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also conducted an aerial inspection of the rescue and relief operation being carried out to find the mountaineering trainees who were hit by the avalanche and announced financial assistance to the kin of the deceased in the Uttarkashi and Pauri Garhwal tragedies which occurred on Tuesday.
“An amount of Rs 2 lakh for deaths, Rs one lakh for serious injuries, and Rs 50,000 for normal injuries will be given to all those affected by these two tragedies,” an official informed.
Besides the tragic incident of the avalanche in Uttarkashi, CM Dhami announced ex-gratia for the accident which claimed 32 lives and injured more than 20 people after a bus carrying a wedding procession fell into a gorge in the Birokhal area of Dhumakot in Pauri-Garhwal district on Tuesday night. (ANI)
