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Uttarakhand disaster: 5 more bodies recovered on Sunday, death toll reaches 67
About 70 personnel in 12 teams of SDRF are searching for bodies in the river from Reni village to Srinagar in Pauri Garhwal district.
Five more bodies were recovered on Sunday by agencies involved in rescue and search following the February 7 Chamoli tragedy caused by the glacier lake overflow flood, taking the death toll to 67 with 137 persons still missing, said officials. Nobody was recovered on Saturday.
"The rescue workers found five more bodies till Sunday morning taking the death toll to 67. Out of the total bodies recovered, 34 have been identified while 33 are yet to be identified," said Swati Bhadauria, district magistrate Chamoli.
Bhadauria added, "Thirteen of the total 67 bodies have been recovered from the 1.7 km long tunnel in the NTPC hydel power project in Tapovan which is in the focus of the rescue operation. The remaining bodies were recovered from various other places."
An avalanche triggered by a glacier burst over upper Himalayan regions in Chamoli district on February 7 damaged two hydel power projects on Rishi Ganga river and possibly killed 150 people. Agencies have been trying to recover bodies and any injured persons from the tunnels of the Tapovan power project, which was choked with slush from the flash flood.
"The rescue workers have been able to clear muck up to a distance of about 162 metres in the Tapovan tunnel but are facing difficulty due to the continuous outflow of water from inside," said Bhaduria.
Meanwhile, a team of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel reached the glacial lake about 8 kms above the disaster hit Reni village in Rishi Ganga catchment area on Saturday. The team is trying to make way for another 14 member team of scientists and rescue workers from state disaster response force (SDRF) and ITBP, by clearing muck and debris near the lake.
Senior ITBP officers including director general SS Deswal also visited the disaster site on Saturday to monitor the ongoing search and rescue operation, which is also being carried out in the Alaknanda river, downstream the disaster site, to search for bodies.
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"About 70 personnel in 12 teams of SDRF are searching for bodies in the river from Reni village to Srinagar in Pauri Garhwal district alongside the river covering four districts of Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri Garhwal and Pauri Garhwal. After recovering the bodies, their DNA samples are being collected to be matched with that of their family members for identification," said Praveen Alok, SDRF spokesperson.
Of the total 204 persons missing initially, 139 are from NTPC’s Tapovan power plant and 53 from the Rishi Ganga project that was also damaged. About 12 villagers living in the vicinity are also missing.
