Bodies of four navy personnel retrieved

DEHRADUN: A day after six people, including five Indian Navy personnel, went missing after their summit of Mt Trishul was hit by an avalanche, a rescue team from the Uttarakashi-based Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) retrieved four bodies on Saturday.

“Mortal remains of four out of five missing Naval mountaineers -Lt Cdr Rajnikant Yadav, Lt Cdr Yogesh Tiwari, Lt Cdr Anant Kukreti, Hari Om MCPO II -- were retrieved from Chamoli today (Saturday). Efforts continue to locate the fifth naval climber & one Sherpa,” the Indian Navy said in a statement.

The three-member NIM rescue team led by institute’s principal Col Amit Bisht left for the site of the incident on Friday after receiving information about the incident. On Saturday morning, they held the aerial inspection but rescue efforts were hit by inclement weather.

The six people had gone missing after an avalanche hit their summit of Mt Trishul in Chamoli district on Friday morning.

Earlier in the day, Col Bisht, who was stationed with the two other team members at a camp few kms from the spot, said, “On Friday, the team couldn’t commence the rescue operation due to bad weather. On Saturday morning, the weather condition didn’t improve but we carried an aerial inspection in a chopper during which four bodies were spotted lying in the snow.”

“The spot where the bodies were seen is at a high altitude. Plus, the weather was also not suitable to enable us to move towards the spot. Hence, we are waiting for the weather to improve so that we could leave for the spot to recover the bodies,” said Bisht.