A search operation resumed on Sunday to find four missing workers after an avalanche hit a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Mana village, Chamoli district, Uttarakhand. Sniffer dogs and helicopters are assisting in the search.
Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said clear weather would help speed up the operation. A ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system from Delhi is expected to arrive soon. An Mi-17 helicopter is on standby in Dehradun to transport the radar to the avalanche site.
The avalanche struck the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath on Friday. It buried 54 workers inside eight containers and a shed, according to the Army. Initially, the number of affected workers was reported as 55, but one worker from Himachal Pradesh was later found safe at home.
Rescuers pulled 50 workers from the snow by Friday. Four of them were dead.
“The operation now focuses on finding the missing workers and evacuating those still stranded,” Tiwari said.
Teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have reached the site with sniffer dogs.
Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, GOC-in-C, Central Command, and Lt Gen D G Mishra, GOC, Uttar Bharat, are at the site to monitor the rescue efforts.
Six helicopters—three from the Indian Army Aviation Corps, two from the Indian Air Force (IAF), and one hired by the Army—are involved in the operation.
Mana, located three kilometres from Badrinath, is the last village on the India-Tibet border at an altitude of 3,200 metres.
The missing workers are Harmesh Chand from Himachal Pradesh, Ashok from Uttar Pradesh, and Anil Kumar and Arvind Singh from Uttarakhand.
Army officials said helicopters carried out most of the rescue operations on Saturday because snow had blocked the approach road, making vehicle movement nearly impossible.
“The priority is to bring the rescued workers to the Army hospital in Jyotirmath and find the missing ones,” officials said.
If weather conditions allow, specialised RECCO radars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), quadcopters, and avalanche rescue dogs will be deployed, 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 operation.
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