District Magistrate (DM), Uttarkashi, Meharban Singh Bisht said the trekking group was from Karnataka and it had three guides from Uttarkashi’s trekking agency, Himalayan View Tracking. They started their expedition to Sahastra Tal on May 29 and were supposed to return to the district on June 7.
The agency had sent information about the trekkers getting lost in their way back on June 4. Teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local police were rushed for rescue. Sahastra Tal, located at an altitude of about 4,100-4,400 metres, is a group of seven lakes on a mountain peak.
“The seniormost member of the group was 71-year-old Asha Sudhakar who died in the incident. Other deceased are Sindhu Vakekalam (44), Sujatha Mangurwadi (52), Vinayak Mangurwadi (55) and Chitra Praneeth (48),” said Mr. Bisht.
The DM said that among the 13 rescued trekkers, nine were fine and were deported to Dehradun after primary health check-up. One of the trekkers was sent to a higher healthcare centre while others were sent to the base camp in Uttarkashi from where they would be sent to their homes.
Joint effort
The government said teams of the Disaster Management department along with the Forest department launched a search-and-rescue operation on Wednesday morning. A joint team of the IAF and a private chopper were engaged for aerial rescue of the trekkers. Teams of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) and the ITBP also helped in the rescue operation, which was briefly halted due to bad weather.
In October 2022, 25 people had died in Uttarkashi’s Draupadi Ka Danda trek after a group of 34 trainees of the NIM and seven instructors of the premier climbing institution were hit by an avalanche.