Uttarakhand disaster: Families lose hope as deaths climb

Photographed in Chokad, Jharkhand, on Monday, Nima Kumari shows her husband Mithilesh Kumar’s photo. Mithilesh was working with NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project and has been missing since the flash floods in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. PIC/PTI

As bodies are being continually pulled out of the muck-filled power project tunnel here, the atmosphere outside is getting grimmer with families of the missing people losing hope of seeing them alive. Every time a body is brought out of the tunnel, families waiting outside for over a week, take some time to pluck up the courage to see if the mortal remains are of a loved one or not.

And the temporary relief of not finding a family member among the dead is brief as they are soon gripped by despair when they see rescue personnel battling through tonnes of sludge choking the tunnel and are reminded that eight days have elapsed since the calamity happened.

Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the tunnel at Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project site taking the toll to 54, while 150 people are still missing.

Out of the three bodies recovered on Monday is of Satypal Singh Bartwal from Chamoli district. "We hoped Satyapal would return alive. But now we will have to return home with his body. It's unbearable," said his elder brother.

Over a dozen relatives of Bartwal including his brother, who had been camping at Tapovan village since the day the tragedy struck, broke down inconsolably after identifying the body. The crowd of disheartened relatives at the tunnel site has begun to disperse. Those who remain are found hanging around the mortuary where the bodies are being brought one after another.

54
Total death toll in the glacier burst

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