The rescue operation following Friday’s avalanche near Mana village in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district concluded on Sunday with the recovery of four more bodies, bringing the death toll to eight, officials confirmed.
“The rescue teams recovered bodies of four missing persons. It takes the death toll to eight. With the recovery of the last missing worker’s body at 5.45 pm, the search and rescue operations in Mana Avalanche was also concluded,” said Lt Col Manish Srivastava, public relations officer, Defence, Dehradun.
Authorities on Sunday revised the total number of border road construction workers affected by the avalanche to 54 from the previously reported 55, after learning that one worker, Sunil Kumar, had left the accident site before the avalanche struck the campsite.
The massive avalanche hit the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp between Mana and Mana Pass between 5:30am and 6am on Friday, burying workers inside eight containers and a shed. The workers were engaged in a strategic road project connecting Mana, the last Indian village, to Mana Pass on the China border.
Of the eight deceased, four were from Uttar Pradesh, two from Himachal Pradesh, and two from Uttarakhand. Officials said the bodies of seven victims have been dispatched to their respective places.
Forty-six workers were rescued successfully by a team of over 200 personnel from the Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), district administration, and other state agencies. Of these, 44 are receiving treatment at the Army hospital in Jyotirmath, while two were airlifted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh.
The rescue operation, which spanned three days, faced significant challenges from the outset, with treacherous terrain, blinding snowfall, near-zero visibility and freezing temperatures at the remote site located at an elevation of approximately 3,200 metres.
Thirty-three workers were rescued by Friday night, as rain and snowfall hampered rescue efforts, forcing operations to be suspended as darkness fell. As weather conditions improved on Saturday morning, rescue teams resumed their efforts, pulling out 17 more people, though four of those rescued succumbed to their injuries.
“Many lives were saved due to the sustained and professional rescue operations conducted by joint efforts of Indian Army, Indian Air Force, ITBP, NDRF, Border Roads Organisation and agencies of the state government,” Srivastava said. “Indian Army commends all the troops and personnel who carried out this rescue operation braving adverse weather and difficult geographical conditions.”
Access to the site remained severely restricted throughout the operation, with the Badrinath-Joshimath highway blocked at 15-20 places due to heavy snowfall. “Movement by road is impossible since it is clogged with snow,” Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Command, had said earlier.
An array of technology and equipment was deployed to aid rescue efforts. “Eight helicopters were deployed to airlift all rescued workers from Army’s Mana post to Jyotirmath. To assist the rescue efforts, a drone-based intelligent buried object detection system was mobilised by Mi-17 helicopter from Delhi, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a quadrotor aerial vehicle and three mini remotely piloted aircraft drones were also employed,” Srivastava explained.
State agencies including SDRF and Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) employed thermal imaging cameras and victim locating cameras on Sunday to assist in the final phase of the search and rescue efforts.
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who had conducted an aerial survey of the affected area on Saturday, said rescuers worked on a war footing to save the construction workers, deploying all possible resources, including modern technology and equipment such as ground penetrating radar.
He praised the rescue teams, stating that it was due to their “commendable efforts” that 46 workers were safely rescued, and emphasised that “all rescued workers should get proper medical treatment.”
With February and March recognised as months with increased avalanche risk, Dhami said his government has issued an advisory to relocate workers from higher Himalayan regions to safer locations.