Thursday, 06 JUNE 2024 | PNS | UTTARKASHI
Five trekkers died when a group of trekkers lost their way while hiking to Sahastra Tal in Uttarkashi due to bad weather and became stranded on Tuesday night. All the deceased trekkers were women. The rescue team retrieved their bodies from the site on Wednesday and could rescue only 13 trekkers till late evening. The group included 22 trekkers and four were still missing. The Sahastra Tal is a popular trek among adventure seekers located at an altitude of about 4,500 metres. The group started the trek with the help of the guides from the Himalayan View Trekking Agency of Maneri in Uttarkashi. The Uttarkashi district magistrate Meharban Singh Bisht said that the team was composed of 18 trekkers from Karnataka, one from Maharashtra and three local guides. The team had planned to return by June 7 but lost its way due to bad weather as it approached Sahastra Tal from the last base camp, Bisht said. He said that the administration also sought assistance from the Air Force, NDRF and ITBP personnel to assist in rescuing the stranded trekkers and locating the bodies. The Uttarkashi superintendent of police Arpan Yaduvanshi said that the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) received the information about the missing trekkers in the Bhatwadi block of the district early on Wednesday. Upon receiving the information, the administration acted upon it promptly and a rescue team of 10 members comprising officials from the SDRF, Forest department and Police officials immediately rushed for the rescue operation. The joint rescue operation was later joined by the Air Force and a total of 13 trekkers were rescued on Wednesday. The officials said that the helicopter rescue team faced difficulties in conducting the rescue operation due to bad weather in the region. They said that it was also difficult for the rescue teams to reach there through the 35 kilometres long trekking route in the bad weather. However, the administration stopped the rescue operation due to bad weather in the evening. The officials said that the five deceased trekkers were identified as Sindhu Vakelam, Asha Sudhakar, Sujata Mungurwadi, Vinayak Mungurwadi and Chitra Praneet. Their bodies were brought to Natin helipad in Uttarkashi and sent to the district hospital for proceedings like Panchnama. Out of 13 rescued trekkers, eight were sent to Dehradun by helicopter, three were in Natin-Bhatwadi and two returned from the site through the Silla village route. The officials said that the health of all the rescued trekkers was stable. Two separate rescue teams comprising 10 and six members respectively were sent to two separate routes to reach the incident site to carry out the rescue operation in the morning for search and rescue operation. The officials said that both teams are on track. The five mountaineer teams of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering have also been deployed in Lata village as a backup for the rescue operation. Besides this, the administration has deployed officials concerned in all the helipads of the district and nearby areas to ensure proper coordination among the departments and agencies concerned. The teams will resume the search operation to rescue the remaining five trekkers on Thursday, the officials added.
