Two days after the Uttarakhand disaster took place, reportedly caused by a glacier outburst, 171 persons are still missing. Most of these missing persons are labourers who were working at the two power plant projects that were destroyed in the glacier outburst. Over 30 workers are feared trapped in a tunnel at a power project site. Meanwhile, officials have recovered 26 bodies from the debris. On day three of the rescue operation, multiple agencies are hard at work to find the missing persons.
Officials at the State Emergency Operation Centre reported the recovery of more bodies and feared the death toll would rise, a day after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier possibly burst through its banks in Chamoli district. It appeared to have triggered an avalanche and a deluge that ripped through the Alaknanda river system in the upper reaches of the ecologically fragile Himalayas.
Experts, however, are still trying to determine the exact cause of the disaster in Joshimath. "It was due to lakhs of metric tonnes of snow sliding down abruptly from a trigger point on top of a naked hill," Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat told reporters after meeting ISRO scientists.
The operation is still underway to rescue the persons who're still trapped in the tunnel in Tapovan, #Uttarakhand
— ANI (@ANI) February 9, 2021
SDRF personnel along with members of other rescue teams have been engaged the entire while in its (rescue operation's) conduction
Visuals from last night pic.twitter.com/ibfDsI8a9L
After a comprehensive analysis is undertaken to find out the reasons, "we will build an elaborate plan to avert any potential tragedy going forward", he said in an interview to PTI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured a delegation of Uttarakhand MPs of his government's support to the people of the state and said it is working to strengthen infrastructure there to deal with any natural disaster in future.
The missing people include those working at the hydel power project sites and villagers whose homes nearby were washed away, officials said.
Two power projects NTPC's 480 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project and the 13.2 MW Rishiganga Hydel Project were extensively damaged with scores of labourers caught in tunnels as the waters came rushing in.
Thirteen villages are cut off due to the damage to roads and bridges, Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar said. Essential food supplies are being sent there by helicopters.
Rescue efforts in the affected areas near Joshimath, about 295 km from here, gained momentum with teams of the Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) coordinating to rescue 30-35 people feared trapped in a tunnel at the Tapovan-Vishnugad project.
More teams have been sent to the site on Mi-17 helicopters that landed at the helipad in Joshimath, NDRF chief S N Pradhan said in a Twitter post.
Some teams from the Army, including from the Medical Corps, also reached the disaster spot, an official supervising the operation said.
Sniffer dogs and heavy mechanical equipment, including bulldozers and JCBs, were deployed.
Officials said 27 people were rescued alive. Of these, 12 were saved from the smaller of the two tunnels at the Tapovan-Vishnugad project site and 15 from the Rishiganga site.
Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar added that efforts were focused on rescuing 30-35 labourers trapped in a 250-metre tunnel at Tapovan.
The work was complicated as the tunnel is slightly curved, making it difficult to clear the debris and silt blocking it.
The entire landscape was coloured a sandy grey, many structures swept away and buried under piles of silt.
"Our teams worked overnight to rescue about 30 workers who are trapped in the tunnel. Specialised equipment for such operations has been deployed. We are hopeful we will able to rescue everyone," ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey told PTI in Delhi.
"There is a huge amount of debris inside the tunnel. About 80 metres inside the tunnel is cleared and accessible, and it looks like about 100 more metres of debris will have to be cleared," he added.
Pandey said nearly 300 ITBP personnel are deployed at the site.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officials to initiate effective action in collaboration with the Uttarakhand government for tracing people from the state who have gone missing in flash floods in the hill state, an official said.
NTPC Limited, the largest energy conglomerate in India, will install early warning systems in its projects located in hill states prone to natural disasters, Union Power Minister RK Singh said on his return from an on-the-spot assessment of the state-run power producer's damaged hydel project at Tapovan on Monday. He also announced a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the families of deceased NTPC workers in the avalanche.
The Minister said that the snow slide, which brought a deluge in the Rishi Ganga river on Sunday, was huge but the barrage built at the NTPC project bore the brunt of it and helped save villages downstream from massive devastation. "The private hydel project in Rishi Ganga was totally washed away while the NTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project also suffered major damage but owing to the solid structure of its barrage, the torrents of muddy water and silt could not cause much damage to villages located downstream," Singh said.