Dehradun: Thirty-three of a total of 55 BRO workers trapped under an avalanche in the high-altitude village of Mana in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district have been rescued, with concerns over the safety of the remaining 22 mounting as night fell on the snowbound slopes and the rescue efforts came to a temporary halt.
Updating the information on the rescue operations here, Uttarakhand’s Disaster Management Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman said 33 trapped labourers have been rescued and 22 remain to be traced amid adverse weather conditions.
Correcting the information shared earlier, Suman said it was subsequently found out that two of the 57 labourers feared trapped in the avalanche at the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp were on leave and the actual number of workers trapped was 55.
While 33 of them have been rescued, 22 are yet to be traced, he added.
According to a list released by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority, the trapped labourers are from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, among other states. The list has 10 labourers’ names, without mentioning the states they belong to.
Suman agreed that the task is challenging as there is seven feet of snow near the avalanche site. However, more than 65 personnel are engaged in the rescue operations, he added.
The snowslide, which buried the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath, rolled down early on Friday morning. Multiple teams battled through the tough terrain, heavy snow and icy temperatures to reach the trapped labourers. They initially pulled out 10 of them and then the others, sources said.
Four of those rescued are reported to be in a critical condition, a public relations officer (PRO) of the Army said. All 33 rescued labourers have been taken to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp in Mana for treatment, the sources said.
Located three kilometres from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres.
Visuals from Mana showed rescuers trudging through high piles of snow in a grim landscape bathed in white.
The rescue operations were stopped in view of the bad weather and the impending danger of more avalanches in Mana. Two mild avalanches had followed the main one.
The avalanche hit between 5:30 am and 6 am, burying the workers inside eight containers and a shed, the Army said. Its swift response teams, comprising more than 100 personnel from the Ibex Brigade, specially trained for high-altitude rescue operations, were immediately mobilised. The teams included doctors and ambulances.
According to Suman, the situation is critical with the containers buried under six to seven feet of snow.
Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have left for the spot, about 300 km from the state capital Dehradun, amid continuing snowfall and rain.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said rescuing the trapped people is the government’s priority. In a post on X, Shah said he has talked to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the directors general of the ITBP and NDRF.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said all efforts are being made to rescue the trapped workers by utilising every available resource. “An unfortunate avalanche has occurred in the Mana area of Joshimath (Uttarakhand) today impacting a GREF camp of BRO. Spoke to CM Shri @pushkardhami regarding the situation. The administration is providing all assistance to the affected,” Singh said in a post on X.
The NDRF said it has rushed four teams to Chamoli. Besides, another four units have been kept on standby, NDRF Director General (DG) Piyush Anand told PTI.
Officials said two teams were rushed from the Regional Response Centre (RRC) of the NDRF in Dehradun, while the other two were diverted from Joshimath, about 50 km from Mana, where they were undertaking a familiarisation exercise.
The rescue operations are fraught with challenges with no let-up in the snowfall and rain and the darkness.
Chamoli’s Disaster Management Officer N K Joshi said the Army and ITBP teams stationed in Mana were engaged in the rescue operations since the morning but those being sent from outside were stuck on the way due to the bad weather.
Villagers in Mana said the site of the accident is considered vulnerable to avalanches in winter and the BRO camp is usually closed this time of the year.
“The camp was not closed this year due to a lack of snowfall and that is why these people got trapped,” Mana village headman Pitambar Singh told PTI.
Officials were on alert for bad weather and its possible impact.
The Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE) in Chandigarh had issued an avalanche warning for a 24-hour period at 5 pm on Thursday for places located above 2,400 metres in Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts.
The MeT office in Dehradun also predicted isolated heavy rain and snowfall at locations situated at 3,500 metres and above in these districts on Friday morning. Following this, the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) here had alerted the district magistrates concerned.
Giving details of the rescue operations, Brigade Commander Mandeep Dhillon said seven officers, 17 junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and 150 other ranks worked from 8 am to rescue the labourers.
“The team is working relentlessly in challenging conditions to save the lives of the trapped personnel. There is also a specialised medical team of three doctors, four ambulances and a team of engineers…. Working to rescue the trapped personnel and also to open the route between Mana and Joshimath,” he said.
Dhami told reporters earlier in the day that 16 of the trapped labourers were rescued.
“Our effort is to rescue all of them safely as soon as possible,” he said.
In an earlier post on X, the chief minister said, “Received the sad news about several labourers getting trapped in an avalanche which occurred near Mana village during construction work being carried out by the BRO.”
“I pray to lord Badri Vishal for the safety of all the labourers,” he said.
Workers from Jharkhand are also among those feared trapped, an official said. However, the exact number of trapped labourers from Jharkhand is not known.
“There have been reports of several workers working under BRO in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district being trapped under a broken glacier,” Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said in a post on X.
The Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Mi-17 choppers will leave for Mana on Saturday morning to join the search-and-rescue operations.
Dhami held a meeting with senior officials at the SEOC here late in the evening and asked them to set up a disaster control room in Joshimath also.
The NDRF, SDRF, ITBP and Army should coordinate with each other to remove the snow from the affected area, the chief minister said and instructed the officials to take special care of the rescued labourers.
The Mana helipad should be opened on priority so that the injured could be airlifted by the Mi-17 helicopters and adequate arrangements should be made in all hospitals, including the Army Hospital, district hospital and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, he added.
If needed, the injured should be brought to the AIIMS, Rishikesh by air ambulances, Dhami said.
Safe evacuation of the trapped labourers is the state government’s top priority, he said. Helpline numbers are also being issued for the families of the affected people, the chief minister added.
He also asked the DMs to remain alert in view of the MeT department’s warning for heavy rain and snowfall in the high-altitude areas of the hill state, so that any emergency situation can be dealt with quickly.
