RESCUE WORKERS BATTLE HUGE MUCK, WINTER

A day after the tragedy triggered by a possible avalanche causing Rishi Ganga river to wash away two hydel power projects, rescue workers resume their operation Monday morning. Working for almost whole day on Sunday they are no short of energy to save lives but facing challenge of huge amount muck brought by the swollen river.

The rescue workers are from state disaster response force (SDRF), national disaster response force (NDRF), armed forces and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). The major rescue work is going in a tunnel about 250-metre-long in the Dhauli Ganga dam at Tapovan in which about 35 workers are feared to be trapped.

Praveen Alok, spokesperson for SDRF, which was the first along with police to reach the spot for rescue work on Sunday, said, “The biggest challenge in the rescue work is the huge amount of muck. The rescue workers in the tunnel where the efforts are on to rescue the 35 people feared trapped inside, are working very cautiously as they are unable to assess the level of muck inside.”

“It is a considerably difficult situations to work in, because we don’t know how deep the muck is inside the long tunnel. The engineers in our SDRF teams after assessing the situation asked the rescue workers to put wooden plank and then walk on it inside the tunnel to avoid any untoward incident to them while working.”

Alok also said the rescue workers were “working tirelessly to save lives in the area after the tragedy”.

“On Sunday after the incident was reported, our men started the rescue work at 11 am and continued it the whole night. On Monday morning, they were replaced by another team who are continuing the rescue work. They are working in rotations so as to get some rest as the team which worked till Monday morning have been asked to rest and resume on Tuesday. All are working for minimum 10-12 hours braving all odds including muck and Himalayan winter.”

Director general of state police Ashok Kumar said the main focus of the rescue work was on the tunnel only while clearing the muck inside.