DEHRADUN, India: At least four people died from their injuries after an avalanche hit a remote border area in India, officials said Saturday, as rescuers battled sub-zero temperatures in their search for five others missing.
A total of 55 workers were buried under snow and debris after the avalanche hit a construction camp on Friday near Mana village on the border with Tibet in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.
In a statement issued Saturday, the Indian army said 50 people were initially rescued, but among them four succumbed to their injuries.
Five workers were still missing, the army said, adding that six choppers had been deployed into rescue efforts as the “roads are blocked.”
Sniffer dogs were also pressed into service and the armed forces were set to use ground penetration radar to locate the missing workers.
At an altitude of over 3,200 meters (10,500 feet), minimum temperatures at the area where the avalanche struck were down to minus 12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit).
Rescue workers were still trying to remove snow from the roads as well as from a military helipad close to the site of the disaster, state disaster relief official Riddhim Agarwal said.
Dhan Singh Bisht said his son and nephew, who were among those rescued, were alive only because of the prompt action by the relief teams.
“I am grateful to them,” an overwhelmed Bisht told AFP by phone.
Uttarakhand state chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the rescue teams were “continuously engaged in relief efforts.”
“The government is fully committed to providing all possible assistance to those affected in this hour of crisis,” he said in a post on X.
Mana village, which shares a border with Tibet, was deserted after residents moved to lower altitudes to escape the extreme weather, The Indian Express newspaper reported.
Avalanches and landslides are common in the upper reaches of the Himalayas, especially during the winter season.
Scientists have said climate change was making weather events more severe, while the increased pace of development in the fragile Himalayan regions has also heightened fears about the fallout from deforestation and construction.
In 2021, nearly 100 people died in Uttarakhand after a huge glacier chunk fell into a river, triggering flash floods.
And devastating monsoon floods and landslides in 2013 killed 6,000 people and led to calls for a review of development projects in the state.
