Bodies recovered from Kanakata pass route, Search and Recovery underway in Lamkhaga and Barua Kanda

A team of five trekkers from West Bengal and a supporting staff went missing in Sunderdunga glacier region near Devi Kund, Uttarakhand during their Kanakata pass trek, almost a week ago. Over the last few days, heli rescue operation by IAF proved to be futile several times due to bad weather conditions and low visibility. Yesterday, the land rescue team of 13 members, comprising SDRF personnel and local people reached Devi Kund and traced five bodies there. The rescue team found the bodies at different places, buried under snow within a radius of 2.5-3 kms but couldn't bring the bodies to Bageshwar yesterday due to inclement weather. Two SDRF personnel got injured during the rescue operation.

Today, the five bodies were brought to Kedareshwar helipad ground, Kapkot by two IAF helicopters and identified at Kapkot Community Health Centre by relatives of the trekkers as Sarit Sekhar Das (35), Chandra Sekhar Das (32), Sagar Dey (27), Sadhan Bask (63) and Pritam Ray (25).

The search operation for the missing member, Khilap Singh, who was a supporting staff of the team is still going on.

In Himachal Pradesh, the recovery operation for the mortal remains of the three trekkers,
Deepak Narayan Rao (58 yrs),
Rajendra Bhalchandra Pathak s/o Sh Bhalchandra Pathak (65 yrs),
Ashok Madhukar Bhalerao s/o Madhukar Bhalerao (64 yrs).
who died during a trek to a pass near Barua Kanda peak, situated between Rohru and Sangla, got disrupted today due to bad weather. The search and recovery mission is still on.

* Name and age given as per field Information collected by SEOC.

Other members of the trek team are safe, now.

In Lamkhaga, after yesterday's heavy snowfall, the search operation resumed today, for the missing two members of Lamkhaga pass trek team, Sukhen Manjhi and Gyan Chand. But no trace has been found yet.