Uttarakhand avalanche: Three more bodies recovered as toll rises to seven

The bodies of three labourers were recovered from the avalanchehit Border Roads Organisation BRO camp in Chamoli on Sunday bringing the death toll to seven while efforts continued to locate another missing worker on the third day of the operation news agency PTI reported Army doctors said 46 workers who were rescued earlier have been brought to the military hospital in Jyotirmath while one with a spinal cord injury was airlifted to AIIMS Rishikesh Three of the workers are in critical condition Lt Col DS Maldhya informed According to PTI helicopters sniffer dogs and thermal imaging technology were being deployed to speed up the rescue operation amid concerns over possible adverse weather conditions on Monday District administration officials in Gopeshwar confirmed that three bodies of missing labourers were found on Sunday raising the death toll in the Uttarakhand avalanche to seven The search is still underway for one person who remains missing they said The bodies were airlifted to Jyotirmath where postmortem examinations were being conducted at the Community Health Centre PTI reported The deceased have been identified as Anil Kumar 21 from Rudrapur in Uttarakhandrsquos Udham Singh Nagar district Ashok 28 from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh and Harmesh age unknown from Una in Himachal Pradesh officials said Uttarakhand avalanche 54 workers were trapped in BRO campThe only missing worker is a 43yearold from the Clement Town area in Dehradun PTI reported The avalanche struck the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath on Friday trapping 54 workers inside eight containers and a shed Initially it was believed that 55 labourers were caught in the avalanche but it was later confirmed that one had been on unauthorised leave and had safely reached home By Saturday evening 50 trapped workers had been rescued though four of them succumbed Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami visited the Uttarakhand State Emergency Operation Centre to review the ongoing rescue efforts The groundpenetrating radar GPR system is being sent to the avalanche site and modern tools like thermal imaging cameras and victimlocating cameras are being used to trace the missing labourers The weather may deteriorate again on Monday so the effort is to locate the missing worker by Sunday itself the chief minister said In a post on X Dhami stated that he has directed officials to expedite the rescue operation Uttarakhand avalanche Situated on IndoTibetan border Mana is at an altitude of 3200 metresThe Indian Army ITBP Indo Tibetan Border Police NDRF National Disaster Response Force SDRF State Disaster Response Force and other relief and rescue teams are working on a war footing at the site of the incident he saidChamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said the search operation was expected to gain momentum as weather conditions remained clear The GPR system from Delhi was expected to arrive shortly to aid the efforts An Mi17 helicopter was on standby in Dehradun to transport the GPR system to the avalanche site he added Teams from the SDRF and NDRF along with sniffer dogs were actively involved in search and rescue operations Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta GOCinC Central Command and Lt Gen D G Mishra GOC Uttar Bharat were present at the site to oversee the rescue efforts Six helicoptersmdashthree from the Indian Army Aviation Corps two from the Indian Air Force IAF and a civilian chopper hired by the Armymdashwere engaged in the operation Located three kilometres from Badrinath Mana is the last village on the IndiaTibet border situated at an altitude of 3200 metres Army officials said Saturdayrsquos rescue efforts were largely carried out by Army and IAF helicopters as snow had blocked several points along the approach road making vehicular movement nearly impossible The priority remains to transport rescued workers to the Army hospital in Jyotirmath while continuing the search for the missing worker they said If weather conditions permit specialised RECCO radars unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs quadcopters and avalanche rescue dogs will be deployed to assist in the search Lt Gen Sengupta said Everything depends on the weather he added More than 200 personnel from the disaster management authority ITBP BRO NDRF SDRF IAF district administration health department and fire brigade are involved in the rescue efforts he saidWith PTI inputs