By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 9 Oct: On 4 October, 29 participants of the Advanced Mountaineering Course conducted by Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, at Dokrani Bamak Glacier in Uttarkashi district, Draupadi’s Danda-2 (5670 m), were caught in an avalanche at the time of ascent. They were trapped in the crevasses located in the glacier about 5200 metres above sea level.
As soon as the information about the incident was received, with the cooperation of the Indian Air Force, Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police, as well as the Army’s High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) in Jammu and Kashmir, was taken and the search and rescue team of the State Disaster Response Force was sent to the affected area.
Today, the search and rescue team in the area sent the bodies recovered of 10 persons were sent to Uttarkashi, where they have been identified as follows, Atanu Dhar (trainee), son of Shashank Dhar, Resident of New Delhi; Vikram M (trainee), son of Raman, resident of Bangalore; Narendra Singh (trainee), son of Akbar Singh, resident of Pauri; Gohil Arjun Singh (trainee), son of Gohil Bhupendra Singh, resident of Mount Abu; Satish Rawat (trainee), son of Shoorveer Singh Rawat, resident of Chamba; Anshul Kainthala (trainee), son of Inder Kainthala, resident of Kumarsen, Shimla;
Rakshit K (trainee), son of Kumar JH, resident of Bangalore; Kapil Panwar (trainee), son of Jagmohan Singh, Bangaon; Lance Naik Shubham Singh (trainee), son of Devi Prasad, 6 Para (SF), 56 APO; Amit Kumar Shaw (trainee), son of Arjun Shaw, resident of Kolkata.
The bodies of 6 of the above persons have been handed over to their families for the last rites. The dead bodies of 4 other persons are being brought to Dehradun by road for embalming, from where these will be sent to West Bengal, Karnataka and Gujarat by air.
This afternoon, the helicopter operation was disrupted due to bad weather, because of which the bodies of the other 6 recovered persons could not be brought from the advance camp to the base camp and from there to the district headquarters.
Search operations are underway to find the remaining two missinng persons in the affected area.
A total of 61 persons were involved in the training, of which 32 remained safe. The total number of the deceased is 27, which 2 are still missing. Twenty-one of the deceased persons have been identified.