57 labourers trapped under avalanche in Uttarakhand, 16 rescued

Dehradun, Feb 28 (PTI) Forty-one BRO labourers working to clear snow near the high altitude border village of Mana in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district were trapped under an avalanche on Friday. The snowslide had initially buried 57 men but 16 were pulled out safely.

The avalanche buried a camp of the Border Roads Organisation between Mana and Badrinath, Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said as multiple teams battled tough terrain, heavy snow and rain to rescue the workers. There was no immediate news of any casualties.

Mana, three kilometres from Badrinath, is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said all efforts were being taken to rescue the trapped personnel by utilising all available resources.

“An unfortunate avalanche has occurred in the Mana area of Joshimath (Uttarakhand) today impacting the GREF (general reserve engineering force) camp of BRO. Spoke to CM Shri @pushkardhami regarding the situation. The administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected,” he said a post on X.

Rescue efforts by local Army units are also underway, he added.

According to the district magistrate, the 57 labourers were at the camp when the avalanche struck between Mana and Mana pass in the morning.

“These labourers do regular snow clearing work on the route for army movement towards the Tibet border… As of now we have no news of any casualty. Rescue teams have been mobilised. But due to active snowfall and rain in the area, rescue work is slow,” he said.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and SDRF left for the spot, about 300 km from the state capital Dehradun, amid continuing snowfall and rain.

“Out of the 57 BRO labourers trapped in the avalanche, 16 have been rescued. Efforts are on to rescue the rest. The help of ITBP and other departments is being taken in the rescue operations. Our disaster management department and the entire administration is fully alert,” Chief Minister Dhami told reporters.

“Our effort is to rescue all safely as soon as possible,” he said

Officials had been on alert for bad weather and its possible impact.

The Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment (DGRE) in Chandigarh had issued an avalanche warning for a period of 24 hours at 5 pm on Thursday for places located above 2,400 metres in Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar districts.

The MeT office in Dehradun also predicted isolated heavy rain and snowfall in locations situated at 3,500 metres and above in these districts on Friday morning. Following this, the State Emergency Operations Centre here alerted concerned district magistrates.

In an earlier post on X, Dhami said, “Received the sad news about several labourers getting trapped in an avalanche which occurred near Mana village during construction work being carried out by the BRO.”

“ITBP, BRO and other rescue teams have launched relief and rescue operations.

I pray to lord Badri Vishal for the safety of all the labourers,” Dhami said in the post.