Dehradun:
A 24-hour avalanche warning has been issued for areas over 3,000 metres from sea level in Chamoli, Rudraprayag, and Pithogarh districts of Uttarakhand.
The warning – issued by the Chandigarh-based Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment, or DGRE, – includes an ‘orange’ alert for these and a ‘yellow’ alert for Uttarkashi district, which borders Chamoli and Rudraprayag. Three districts in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh – Chamba, Lahaul Spiti, and Kullu Kinnaur – also face an ‘orange’ alert.
A ‘yellow’ alert is in place for areas in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including Ganderbal, Baramulla, Kupwara, Rajouri, and Poonch in the former and Kargil in the latter.
The warning comes a week after a Border Roads Organisation labourers’ camp in Chamoli was buried by an avalanche. Nearly 60 people were in the camp at the time. Eight were killed.
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The camp was at a height of 3,200 metres above sea level, where minimum temperatures were as low as -12 degrees Celsius, hampering rescue and recovery efforts. Over 200 personnel from state and central disaster response agencies and the Army and Air Force worked non-stop.
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Eventually, 33 workers were rescued by nightfall on February 28 and 17 on March 1.
There is still at least three feet of snow in the region, which is near the Tibet border.
The Chamoli, Rudraprayag, and Pithoragarh are districts connected to the Indo-Tibetan border and the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police have border outposts here, increasing the chances of an avalanche in the region.
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