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Uttarakhand cloudburst: Death toll reaches 10, NDRF joins search ops
A team comprising 29 men reached the spot on Tuesday evening to join the search and rescue operation carried by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), along with local police and authorities.
The rescue teams carrying the search operation since Sunday night have retrieved three more bodies from the muck on Wednesday from a village taking the death toll in cloudburst incident in Munsiyari area of Pithoragarh to 10, officials said on Wednesday. Of the three bodies that have been recovered, two were of children while one was of an elderly man. All were trapped in muck which entered their house in Tanga village of Munsiyari area of Pithoragarh, officials informed.
Praveen Alok, media in-charge, state disaster response force (SDRF) which is involved in the rescue operation along with other agencies, said, “The three bodies were recovered in the afternoon from the muck inside a collapsed house.”
“They were identified as Madho Singh, 65; Ratika, 8; and Divanshu, 12. After the recovery of the three bodies, four are yet to be found of the total 11 who went missing from the village on Sunday night after the cloudburst,” said Alok.
Meanwhile, a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has joined the ongoing search and rescue operation to find the seven people missing in heavy muck which entered their house in Sunday night’s cloudburst incident in Munsiyari area of Pithoragarh district, said officials on Wednesday.
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A team comprising 29 men reached the spot on Tuesday evening to join the search and rescue operation carried by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), along with local police and authorities.
Girija Shankar Joshi, district information officer, Pithoragarh said, “The NDRF men reached the spot at around 5 pm on Tuesday. With them, the total number of men involved in the search and rescue operation has reached about 88 which includes 19 from Indo-Tibetan Border Police, 10 from SDRF and as many from local police.”
The NDRF team joined the rescue teams on Tuesday when four bodies were recovered from Tanga village where 11 were missing since Sunday night. Before that, on Monday morning three bodies were recovered from the nearby Gaila village which too was affected by the cloudburst incident.
“Chances of the remaining four people to be alive are very little as they are trapped in heavy muck which entered their house,” said Joshi.
District magistrate Vijay Kumar Jogdande and other district administration officials are on the spot since Monday to monitor the search and rescue operation.
