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'Had lost all hope': Survivors recall horror tales of Chamoli disaster
Basant, who was stranded around 300 meters inside the NTPC Tapovan dam tunnel, said that he was stuck inside it for almost 7 hours.
Stuck inside a tunnel for hours, which was originally their place of work but almost seemed like a death trap on Sunday, survivors of the Chamoli tragedy from Uttarakhand said that they cannot thank the rescuers enough for saving their lives.
Basant, who was stranded around 300 meters inside the National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) Tapovan dam tunnel, said that he was stuck inside it for almost seven hours on Sunday.
“On Sunday, all of a sudden around 10 am a lot of muck and debris came gushing inside the tunnel. Till 5 pm, I was stuck inside the tunnel with no hope of seeing the light of the day. But by evening, I was rescued by Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel and rushed to the hospital.”
Another survivor, Suraj Kumar, a resident from Dhak village in Chamoli district said, “Without ITBP personnel, I do not think I would have been alive after Sunday’s horror. We had lost all hope, but then the miracle happened and we were saved. I am overjoyed to be alive".
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Despite working for almost the whole day on Sunday, rescue workers in Uttarakhand are no short of energy to save lives but face the challenge of a huge amount of muck brought by the swollen Rishi Ganga river in the incident.
The rescue workers include personnel from the state disaster response force (SDRF), the national disaster response force (NDRF), the armed forces and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Major rescue work is going on in a tunnel in the Dhauli Ganga dam at Tapovan which is about 900 metres long. More than 25 workers are feared trapped inside it.
Satish Kumar from Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh, who was stranded inside a tunnel and was rescued on Sunday, also said he cannot thank ITBP personnel enough. “I thought it was the end. But God sent them to save us,” he said.
Praveen Alok, spokesperson for the SDRF, which was the first to reach the spot for rescue work on Sunday along with the local police said, "The biggest challenge in the rescue work is the huge amount of muck."
"The rescue workers are working very cautiously as they are unable to assess the level of muck inside," said Alok.
