Frantic rescue work afoot as hope fades
Five more bodies recovered from river, U’khand glacier breach toll at 31, 175 still missing
DEHRADUN The rescue operation in the aftermath of the flash floods on Sunday continued on the third day on Tuesday in the disaster-hit Chamoli district of Uttarakhand as the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) recovered five more bodies from the Alaknanda river on Tuesday, taking the death toll to 31 with 175 people still missing.
Surging waters on Sunday washed away homes, damaged two major dams, cut off 13 villages, and snapped crucial road links and bridges that connect far-flung areas in the Himalayan region. The worst disaster to hit the region in eight years struck when a glacier breach under the Nanda Devi, the country’s second-highest peak, sent a torrent of water, rock, and dust down a valley into the Rishiganga river, where workers were building a dam.
Visuals showed the muddy floodwaters smashing most of the plant and inundating bridges before roaring downstream into the Dhauliganga and partially damaging the National Thermal Power Corporation’s 530 MW Tapovan Vishnugrad project, roughly 8 km away.
On Tuesday, two of the bodies were recovered from the debris in Raini village, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials said. The State Emergency Operation Centre said five bodies were found in the morning and estimated that 175 people are still missing.
Praveen Alok, an SDRF spokesman, said, “Till Tuesday noon, 31 bodies were recovered, including five from the river on Tuesday morning. The SDRF teams are continuously scanning