The bodies of three labourers were recovered from the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday, bringing the death toll to seven, while efforts continued to locate another missing worker on the third day of the operation, news agency PTI reported.
Army doctors said 46 workers who were rescued earlier have been brought to the military hospital in Jyotirmath, while one with a spinal cord injury was airlifted to AIIMS, Rishikesh. Three of the workers are in critical condition, Lt Col DS Maldhya informed.
According to PTI, helicopters, sniffer dogs, and thermal imaging technology were being deployed to speed up the rescue operation amid concerns over possible adverse weather conditions on Monday.
District administration officials in Gopeshwar confirmed that three bodies of missing labourers were found on Sunday, raising the death toll in the Uttarakhand avalanche to seven. The search is still underway for one person who remains missing, they said.
The bodies were airlifted to Jyotirmath, where post-mortem examinations were being conducted at the Community Health Centre, PTI reported.
The deceased have been identified as Anil Kumar, 21, from Rudrapur in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district, Ashok, 28, from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, and Harmesh (age unknown) from Una in Himachal Pradesh, officials said.
Uttarakhand avalanche: 54 workers were trapped in BRO camp
The only missing worker is a 43-year-old from the Clement Town area in Dehradun, PTI reported.
The avalanche struck the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath on Friday, trapping 54 workers inside eight containers and a shed. Initially, it was believed that 55 labourers were caught in the avalanche, but it was later confirmed that one had been on unauthorised leave and had safely reached home.
By Saturday evening, 50 trapped workers had been rescued, though four of them succumbed.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the Uttarakhand State Emergency Operation Centre to review the ongoing rescue efforts.
“The ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system is being sent to the avalanche site, and modern tools like thermal imaging cameras and victim-locating cameras are being used to trace the missing labourers. The weather may deteriorate again on Monday, so the effort is to locate the missing worker by Sunday itself,” the chief minister said.
In a post on X, Dhami stated that he has directed officials to expedite the rescue operation.
Uttarakhand avalanche: Situated on Indo-Tibetan border, Mana is at an altitude of 3,200 metres
“The Indian Army, ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police), NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), SDRF (State Disaster Response Force), and other relief and rescue teams are working on a war footing at the site of the incident,” he said.
Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said the search operation was expected to gain momentum as weather conditions remained clear. The GPR system from Delhi was expected to arrive shortly to aid the efforts.
An Mi-17 helicopter was on standby in Dehradun to transport the GPR system to the avalanche site, he added. Teams from the SDRF and NDRF, along with sniffer dogs, were actively involved in search and rescue operations.
Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, GOC-in-C, Central Command, and Lt Gen D G Mishra, GOC, Uttar Bharat, were present at the site to oversee the rescue efforts.
Six helicopters—three from the Indian Army Aviation Corps, two from the Indian Air Force (IAF), and a civilian 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, situated at an altitude of 3,200 metres.
Army officials said Saturday’s rescue efforts were largely carried out by Army and IAF helicopters, as snow had blocked several points along the approach road, making vehicular movement nearly impossible.
The priority remains to transport rescued workers to the Army hospital in Jyotirmath while continuing the search for the missing worker, they said. If weather conditions permit, specialised RECCO radars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), quadcopters, and avalanche rescue dogs will be deployed to assist in the search, Lt Gen Sengupta said.
“Everything depends on the weather,” he added.
More than 200 personnel from the disaster management authority, ITBP, BRO, NDRF, SDRF, IAF, district administration, health department, and fire brigade are involved in the rescue efforts, he said.
(With PTI inputs)
