Uttarakhand Disaster: Rescuers remove 6 bodies from the Tapovan tunnel, 7 from elsewhere; the toll goes up to 51
Rescue teams recovered 13 more bodies on Sunday, including the first to be pulled from the mud-filled Tapovan tunnel where a massive operation began to reach about 30 people trapped inside after a flash flood in the Chamoli district ago one week. Six bodies were recovered from the Tapovan power project tunnel, six from Raini upriver and one from the river bank at Rudraprayag, bringing the confirmed death toll in the Uttarakhand disaster to 51.
Authorities said more than 150 people remain missing after the February 7 devastation, possibly triggered by an avalanche in the upper reaches of the Alaknanda river system. A surge of water in the Dhauliganga and Rishiganga rivers had washed away two water projects.
The bodies of the victims were found at different locations along the river over the past week, but rescuers have so far failed to reach anyone, dead or alive, in the National’s 520 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project tunnel network. Thermal Power Corporation.
Chamoli District Magistrate Swati S Bhadauria and Police Superintendent Yashwant Singh Chauhan rushed to the tunnel when they removed the first two bodies in the early hours of Sunday.
Four more bodies were later recovered from the tunnel, which is filled with debris brought in by the flash flood.
Authorities said a helicopter was kept on standby at the Tapovan rescue site to quickly transport survivors, if any, for medical treatment.
Rescuers are also continuing an alternative approach: trying to widen a hole they have drilled in another interconnected tunnel from where the trapped men may be reached.
Men found dead on Sunday included Alam Singh from Tehri, Anil (Dehradun district), Jitendra Kumar (Jammu), Shesh Nath (Faridabad), JItendra Dhanai (Tehri), Suraj Thakur (Kushinagar) Jugal Kishore (Punjab), Rakesh Kapur (Himachal Pradesh). ), Harpal Singh (Chamoli), Ved Prakash (Gorakhpur), Dhanurdhari (Gorakhpur).
The bodies were kept in a temporary morgue in Tapovan, authorities said.
The Chamoli DM said that some 445 people stranded after the flash flood have so far been sent to their villages by helicopter. More than 500 ration kits have been distributed in the affected areas.
The medical camps set up in the affected villages have so far treated 998 patients.
The process of cremating the victims after taking their DNA samples continued in the Chamoli district. Two bodies and four amputated limbs were cremated on Sunday.
Agencies involved in the Tapovan rescue work include the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force.
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