DEHRADUN: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Friday deployed a 22-member team to trace a Haryana government official who slipped and fell into the river at Devprayag Sangam in Tehri Garhwal district on Thursday evening, officials said on Friday.

NDRF deputy commandant Ravi Sharma said the team was sent from Dehradun to Devprayag to search for Jagraj Dandi, a joint director in Haryana government’s agriculture department, who went missing at Devprayag Sangam, where the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers converge in the foothills of the Himalayas to form the Ganga.
Sharma said the team has started a search operation downstream but hasn’t been able to recover him so far. “The team is continuing its search”.
Sharma said the Haryana government official had come to Uttarakhand with his family for a vacation. They first went to Rishikesh and then went to Sangam where pilgrims take a ritual dip and offer prayers to Ganga.
Due to rains in the higher reaches, there has been a sharp increase in the water flow in Alaknanda and Bhagirathi. Devprayag is located near New Tehri City in Tehri Garhwal District.