Uttarakhand glacier burst: Search and rescue operations under way in Chamoli
โThe work of removing slush from the 2.5-km-long tunnel at Tapovan is still under way and JCB has been deployed,โ NDRF Director-General S.N. Pradhan
A day after a part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district causing massive devastation, a joint team comprising the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel continued to carry out the search operation for trapped labourers on Monday.
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โThe work of removing slush from the 2.5-km-long tunnel at Tapovan is still under way. JCB has been deployed. Three NDRF teams had joined the rescue operations earlier along with canine search squads. More personnel are being airlifted using MI-17 helicopters,โ said NDRF Director-General S.N. Pradhan.
Uttarakhand Director-General of Police Ashok Kumar told the media that following the glacier burst, boulders and debris caused massive damage to the Raini power project. In all, 32 people from the first and 121 people from the second project were missing.
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Late on Sunday night, amid speculation that the rescue work had stopped, he tweeted: โRescue work on the second tunnel was stopped temporarily only due to some rise in water level..it has already started again. The machine clearing the slush again at the entry of tunnel..some agencies are misquoting…โ
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The Chamoli police said 15 people had been rescued so far, while 15 bodies were also found at different places, including the one in Koteshwar Rudraprayag on Monday.