U’khand avalanche: 12 more bodies recovered; toll now 16
6 October, 2022 | Pranay Lad
The avalanche that swept down the slopes of Draupadi Ka Danda II peak at a height of 17,000 feet engulfed dozens of people taking part in a training course run by the institute.
According to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, 16 bodies have been recovered so far after an avalanche hit the mountaineers on Draupadi Ka Danda-II in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on October 4. Rescuers recovered 12 bodies of trainee mountaineers on Thursday, bringing the confirmed death toll from an avalanche to 16, according to the institute.
The avalanche that swept down the slopes of Draupadi Ka Danda II peak at a height of 17,000 feet engulfed dozens of people taking part in a training course run by the institute. Over 20 mountaineers are still presumed missing. The avalanche struck the peak as the team was returning from the summit.
The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) reports that the recovery of 12 more bodies brings the total number of bodies recovered to 16 after four were recovered on the day of the avalanche.
Ten bodies had been found, according to a post made on the Uttarakhand Police’s Facebook page on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) stated that, without accounting for the five bodies recovered, four bodies had been recovered from NIM’s 61-member advance training course team, which included trainees and instructors, 30 were safe, and 27 were still missing.
The search for the missing mountaineers grew on Thursday with the addition of a 14-person team from the High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir.
The team, which specialises in high-altitude rescue operations, will assist the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and mountaineers from NIM in their efforts to locate the missing climbers, according to the SEOC.