Uttarakhand disaster toll rises to 61, 2 more bodies recovered from Tapovan tunnel

The death toll from the Uttarakhand glacier disaster which provoked floods in Chamoli on February 7 rose to 61 on Thursday as two more bodies were recovered from the sludge-choked Tapovan tunnel and one from Raini.

The rescue efforts to reach workers feared trapped a tunnel of the NTPC’s flood-ravaged Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project entered the 12th day on Thursday.

The confirmed death toll of the flash flood in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district has now mounted to 61 while 143 are still missing, the news agency quoted the police as saying.

Thirteen workers have so far been pulled out of the sludge-choked tunnel at Tapovan where a large number of people were at work when the tragedy occurred following a



flash flood in Rishiganga.

One human limb was also recovered from the tunnel on Thursday, taking the total number of human body parts recovered from different parts of the affected areas to 27.

The glacial burst had triggered a flash flood which had demolished a 13.2 MW hydel project along the river besides causing extensive damage to the NTPC’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project along Dhauliganga.

Search operation at the tunnel had to be paused on Wednesday for a few hours as water had entered making it difficult to remove slush.

The exercise was resumed on Wednesday afternoon after pumping water out of the tunnel by a combined team of rescuers comprising of Army, ITBP, NDRF and SDRF personnel.