DEHRADUN: Rescue teams recovered two more bodies from the snow-covered Kedartal trekking route in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district on Wednesday, taking the number of confirmed deaths to four. Four others remain missing following heavy snowfall and an avalanche.
A joint Mountain Rescue Team comprising personnel from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) recovered the bodies during a search operation in the Gangotri glacier region.
The four deceased include two women and two men. The women were identified as sisters Vartika Verma, 28, and Deepika Verma, 29, from Lucknow.
The bodies were airlifted to the Matli helipad in Uttarkashi and shifted to the district hospital for post-mortem examinations and other formalities.
The eight missing persons originally included five trekkers from West Bengal, two women from Uttar Pradesh and a local guide from Uttarkashi.
The group was returning towards Gangotri when adverse weather conditions struck the region on October 29. Search operations began on October 31.
Rescuers recovered the first two bodies on Tuesday after several days of difficult searches in snow-covered terrain.
Officials said the operation would resume on Thursday to locate the four people still missing.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
