Eight bodies were recovered on Sunday from the flash flood-ravaged hydel project sites in Tapovan and Raini of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, taking the toll in the calamity to 46, even as search and rescue operations were intensified.

Five bodies were recovered from the intake adit tunnel of the NTPC’s 520 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project. These are the first bodies to be found from the site where muck-clearing and drilling operations have been underway on a war-footing since last Sunday. Three others were recovered from Raini, where a 13.2 MW hydel project along the Rishiganga was destroyed in the calamity.