Eleven people on trek to Himachal’s Chitkul go missing

The team of eleven people was on a trek to Chitkul in Himachal via Harsil in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, district disaster management officer Devendra Patwal said

Eight trekkers and three cooks accompanying them on a trek to Chitkul in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh have gone missing, officials said on Wednesday.

Comprising seven tourists from Kolkata and one from Delhi, the team had left Harsil for Chitkul in Himachal on October 11 and was supposed to reach there on October 19. (Image for representational purpose)

The team of eleven people was on a trek to Chitkul via Harsil in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, district disaster management officer Devendra Patwal said.

Comprising seven tourists from Kolkata and one from Delhi, the team had left Harsil for Chitkul on October 11 and was supposed to reach there on October 19.

However, when it did not reach Chitkul on Tuesday, worried trek organisers informed the Uttarkashi district disaster management office, Patwal said.

An SDRF team is preparing to trace the missing trekkers by a helicopter and rescue them, he said.

The team members have been identified as Anita Rawat (38) from Delhi, and Mithun Dari (31), Tanmay Tiwari (30), Vikash Makal (33), Saurav Ghosh (34), Saviayan Das (28), Richard Mandal (30), and Suken Manjhi (43), all from Kolkata. The cooking staff have been identified as Devendra (37), Gyan Chandra (33) and Upendra (32), all from Purola in Uttarkashi.

“They are supposedly stuck near Lakhwaga Pass. An ITBP team will start rescue operation early in the morning tomorrow,” said Kinnaur deputy commissioner Abid Hussain Sadiq. Kinnaur superintendent of police Ashok Rattan said that cops have also been dispatched.