Uttarakhand Avalanche: Death Toll Reaches 8 As 53-Hour Search Operation Concludes; 46 Rescued Workers Undergoing Treatment

With this, the final death toll in the Chamoli tragic glacial burst rose to 8 on the second and final day of rescue operations, officials said. The rescue operations lasted 53 hours in the very low temperature prevailing in the high-altitude BRO camp near Mana.

The avalanche hit the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp located in the high-altitude zone between Mana and Badrinath on Friday, burying 54 workers inside eight containers and a shed. Earlier, it was believed that the total number of avalanche-hit labourers was 55, but one of them was on unauthorised leave and had reached home safely.

Of the 46 rescued workers, 45 are being treated in an Army hospital in Jyotirmath, while one with a spinal cord injury was airlifted to AIIMS, Rishikesh. Eight workers lost their lives at the end of the search operations.

Details of the deceased

On Saturday, the bodies of four workers were found. They were identified as Jitendra Singh (26) of Bilaspur, Alok Yadav of Kanpur, Manjeet Yadav of Sarwan - all residents of Uttar Pradesh - and Mohinder Pal (42) of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.

The bodies of four workers found on Sunday were those of Harmesh Chand (31) of Una, Himachal Pradesh; Anil (21) of Rudrapur, Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand; Ashok (28), resident of Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh; and Arvind, resident of Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

CM reviewed rescue operations

Earlier in the day, the government escalated efforts for the missing workers as time was running out for the search in the high-altitude zone. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also visited the Uttarakhand State Emergency Operation Centre to get an update on the rescue operation.

Speaking to reporters, he said, "The ground penetrating radar (GPR) system is being sent to the avalanche site and help of modern tools like thermal imaging camera and victim locating camera are being taken to trace the labourer still missing. The weather may turn bad again on Monday. The effort is to trace the missing on Sunday itself".

In a post on X, Dhami said he had instructed officials to expedite the ongoing operation. "The Indian Army, ITBP, NDRF, SDRF and other relief and rescue teams are working on a war footing at the site of the incident," he said.

Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said the search operation is expected to gain pace as the weather is clear, and the GPR system from Delhi is expected to arrive here any moment to aid the efforts.

An Mi-17 helicopter is waiting in Dehradun to fly the GPR system to the avalanche site, he said. State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams with sniffer dogs are at the avalanche site to help in the search and rescue efforts, he said.

Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, GOC-in C, Central Command, and Lt Gen D G Mishra, GOC, Uttar Bharat, were at the avalanche site and monitored the rescue operations. Six helicopters- three of the Indian Army Aviation Corps, two of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and a civil chopper hired by the Army - were engaged in the operations. Located three kilometres from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border, positioned at a height of 3,200 metres above sea level.