Uttarakhand avalanche LIVE: Toll climbs to 8 as Army recovers last missing worker's body
Number of avalanche-hit labourers revised from 55 to 54 as one of the "missing" labourers had left for home without telling his employers
Two days after a devastating avalanche hit BRO camp at Mana village in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, Indian Army recovered the body of the last missing worker, news agency ANI quoted Army officials as saying on Sunday (March 2).
With this, the death toll in the avalanche has gone up to eight. The bodies recovered on Sunday are being brought to Mana post as per PRO (Defence), Dehradun.
Addressing the media, Lt Col Manish Shrivastava, PRO (Defence) Dehradun said, as quoted by ANI, “The last missing person's body has been found. All the 54 persons have been rescued/recovered. The recovery marks the culmination of Mana Village Rescue Operation.”
Earlier, the number of avalanche-hit labourers had been revised now from 55 to 54. According to the latest updates provided by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA), one of the missing labourers — Sunil Kumar from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh — had gone home without telling his employers. He has reached home safely.
What is an avalanche and how does it happen? Read up all the details here
The avalanche hit the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp between Mana and Badrinath between 5.30 am and 6 am on Friday, burying 55 workers inside eight containers and a shed, according to the Army. Of them, 33 were rescued by Friday night and 17 on Saturday.
Located 3 km from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres. Rain and snowfall hampered the rescue efforts on Friday and the operation was suspended as night fell. As the weather cleared up on Saturday morning, the Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel based in Mana resumed the rescue operation.
The deceased were identified as Mohindra Pal and Jitendra Singh from Himachal Pradesh, Manjit Yadav from Uttar Pradesh and Alok Yadav from Uttarakhand, the USDMA said.
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- 2 March 2025 1:32 PM GMT
Bodies of four more missing workers recovered from avalanche site, rescue operation ends
The bodies of the last four of the trapped labourers were pulled out from the site of the avalanche-hit Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp in Chamoli on Sunday, taking the death toll to eight as authorities ended the nearly 60-hour rescue operation.
Army doctors said 46 workers who were rescued on Saturday have been brought to the military hospital in Jyotirmath. Two of them have been referred to AIIMS, Rishikesh. Three of the workers are in critical condition, Lt Col DS Maldhya said.
The body of the last missing worker has also been retrieved. The recovery marks the culmination of the Mana Village Rescue operation, Defence Public Relations Officer (PRO) Lt Col Manish Shrivastava said.
"Out of the 54 labourers who went missing after the avalanche, 46 were rescued alive and eight found dead," Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said.
Four bodies were retrieved on Saturday and as many on Sunday.
The avalanche hit the BRO camp between Mana and Badrinath on Friday, burying the 54 workers inside eight containers and a shed. Earlier, it was believed that the total number of trapped labourers was 55 but one of them was on unauthorised leave and had reached home safely.
More than 200 personnel from the disaster management authority, ITBP, BRO, NDRF, SDRF, IAF, district administration, health department and fire brigade were engaged in the rescue operation. Located three kilometres from Badrinath, Mana is the last village on the India-Tibet border at a height of 3,200 metres.
The last missing worker found dead was 43-year-old Arvind Kumar Singh from the Clement Town area in Dehradun. The others whose bodies were pulled out on Sunday were identified as Anil Kumar (21) from Rudrapur in Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district, Ashok (28) from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh and Harmesh from Una in Himachal Pradesh, the officials said.
- 2 March 2025 8:30 AM GMT
Death toll climbs to 5
A missing labourer was found dead on Sunday at the site of the avalanche-hit BRO camp in Mana village as rescuers carried out a search for the three other workers still missing with the help of sniffer dogs, thermal imaging cameras and helicopters. With the recovery of one more body, the death toll in the disaster has climbed to five, district authorities said. - 2 March 2025 7:58 AM GMT
GPR system to arrive from Delhi
Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said a ground penetrating radar (GPR) system from Delhi is expected to arrive at any moment to aid the efforts. An Mi-17 helicopter is waiting in Dehradun to fly the GPR system to the avalanche site, he said.
