NEW DELHI: The Army on Sunday afternoon recovered the body of the eighth missing worker in the Mana (Chamoli) avalanche incident during the ongoing search operation. Earlier that day, rescue teams found three more bodies whilest searching for the last missing worker.
Lt col Manish Shrivastava, PRO (defence), Dehradun, confirmed, “All 54 persons have now been rescued or recovered. This marks the culmination of the Mana Village Rescue Operation.”
Officials reported that the search operation resumed on Sunday morning to find four workers believed to be trapped beneath snow after an avalanche struck a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) project site in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on February 28.
The death toll reached eight, including four workers who died on Saturday.
The recovered bodies were airlifted to the Joshimath military hospital. The avalanche on February 28 morning had buried 54 workers. Rescue operations were conducted by Army, ITBP, Air Force, NDRF, and SDRF personnel over two days.
SDRF teams utilised victim-locating and thermal imaging cameras in their search efforts. A Drone-Based Intelligent Buried Object Detection System was deployed at the avalanche site in Mana to assist operations.
AIIMS Rishikesh PRO Sandeep Singh said, “The patient airlifted here today is Pawan Kumar, who has sustained a pelvic injury and is undergoing further treatment. Yesterday, Ashok Kumar was brought in with a spinal injury, which has left him unable to move his legs. He is scheduled for surgery today, pending test results.”
“Five patients were expected to be brought here, but we later learned that four would be arriving. Other injured workers are being treated at the base hospital,” the AIIMS official added.
Uttarakhand state disaster management secretary Vinod Kumar Suman said that favourable weather aided rescue efforts.
On Saturday, Lt gen Anindya Sengupta, GOC-in-C, central command, and Lt gen DG Misra, GOC, Uttar Bharat Area, inspected the site. Lt gen Sengupta detailed the deployment of specialised reconnaissance radars, UAVs, quadcopters, and avalanche rescue dogs to locate survivors, with helicopters continuously transporting equipment and evacuating the injured.