At least 38 people have died and 166 are missing after a part of a glacier broke off on February 7, unleashing flash floods in the state.
Rescue teams in Uttarakhand on Saturday began widening a hole drilled into a tunnel at the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited’s Tapovan-Vishnugad hydroelectric plant, where more than three dozen workers have been trapped after the massive flood last week, reported PTI. Rescuers used excavators and shovels to clear sludge from the tunnel in an attempt to reach the workers as hopes for their survival faded. The disaster was set off when part of a glacier broke off on February 7, unleashing flash floods that left at least 38 people dead and 166 missing. Deputy Inspector General of Police Nilesh Anand Bharne said 11 bodies had been identified. Eighteen body parts were recovered from the flood-hit areas, of which 10 were cremated after collecting DNA samples, he said. “We are working under a three-pronged strategy to reach those trapped in the tunnel,” General Manager of the NTPC project, RP Ahirwal, told PTI. “The hole we drilled yesterday [Friday] is being widened to one feet so as to reach a camera and a pipe inside the silt flushing tunnel where the trapped are said to be located.
