Rescue teams battle on in Tapovan, toll 38

 

 

RESCUE teams battled on against various odds for the sixth consecutive day on Friday to get to the over 30 people trapped inside the sludge-choked Tapovan tunnel amid fading hopes of their survival. Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar, in Dehradun, said sludge clearing and drilling operations are simultaneously underway at the tunnel to reach the smaller tunnel underneath where they may be trapped.

 

“It may be the sixth day after the calamity but we have not lost hope and will try our best to save as many lives as we can,” Kumar told PTI. Two more bodies were recovered from the flash flood-hit areas of Chamoli district on Friday, taking the toll in the calamity to 38.

 

One body was recovered from the rubble at the demolished Rishi Ganga Hydel Project in Raini and the other from Maithana, district administration officials here said.

 

At least 184 livestock in Juwa Gwad and Pang villages of Uttarakhand also perished in the calamity. A separate team of rescuers was formed under the supervision of the executive engineer of the Rural Works Department to expedite the search operation taking the help of locals and old photographs of the demolished Rishi Ganga hydel project.

 

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel using excavators and JCBs are dredging through the muck to locate the missing, the officials said. On reports of protests by the family members of the missing people in Tapovan, he said they should not lose patience as all efforts are being made to establish contact with those trapped inside the tunnel.