Couple buried alive while digging on hillside in remote Uttarakhand village

Rescue operation began Tuesday night before the bodies were found at about 1 am on Wednesday.

In a tragic incident, a husband and his wife were buried alive after a hillside caved in while they were digging at its base in Bageshwar district on Tuesday evening, police said on Wednesday.

Villagers alerted authorities after the couple did not return home in the evening. (Getty Images/Representational Photo)

Devendra Singh Danu 30 and his wife Geeta 25, residents of Jagthana village under Kapkot police station around 40 km from Bageshwar district headquarter had gone to nearby forest to bring soil for their house on Tuesday evening . When they did not return villagers launched a search operation.

Villagers saw some of their belongings near the site of the cave in and suspected that they were buried under the soil.

The village chowkidar informed the local administration about it following which the police, revenue and SDRF personnel rushed to the spot.

“We rushed to the spot in the evening itself with the state disaster response force (SDRF) team as we received information. We immediately started a rescue operation and recovered the bodies,” Madan Lal, station officer of Kapkot police station said.

Rescue operation began with the help of villagers in the night itself. At about 1 am on Wednesday the team recovered the bodies of Devendra and his wife. Police took both bodies into possession and sent them for post-mortem.

“The bodies have been handed over to their relatives on Wednesday after post-mortem,” said Lal.