Disaster Update
By Santushti Raina
Dehradun: Almost 33 hours after the glacier burst near Joshi Math in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, 171 persons were still missing while rescue teams recovered 26 dead bodies from Tapovan on Dhauliganga River till 8 pm on Monday. Of those missing, around 35 were supposed to be in the 12 km long tunnel where the rescue operation is still going on, police sources said.
A joint team of National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and Army were conducting a rescue operation there. The team had reached the 130-meter mark in Tapovan tunnel to safely rescue those who were stuck in the tunnel.
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The main entrance of the Tapovan tunnel had been cleared by Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel with the help of machines. A multi-agency rescue operation including — Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) — was in full swing to release people still stuck in the tunnels.
After the bridge collapsed in Raini village during the glacier burst, around 13 villages were also cut off near areas such as Malari and Ghansali. “There is heavy deployment of ITBP there near the India-China border. We have alerted them,” Additional Director General of Police Manoj Rawat, said.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat visited the Chamoli district to take a first hand stock of the situation. He said that saving lives was the priority.
Yesterday, 12 persons were rescued from TapovanTunnel yesterday by ITBP official jawans at Joshi Math after the glacier burst at the Rishiganga power project in the Tapovan area of Joshimath on Sunday morning that also damaged the Rishiganga dam on the Alaknanda river.
