DEHRADUN: Five trekkers died after a 22-member group lost its way in the mountains due to extreme weather conditions during an expedition to Sehastrataal trek in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district.
The district administration, disaster management authorities and forest department launched a search and rescue operation following which 11 members of the group were rescued.Authorities said that four trekkers are still missing and search operation is being carried out to locate them.
Authorities said that two of the trekkers are safe and are heading towards Silla village from the base camp.
As per the officials, a 22-member group- including 18 from Bengaluru, one from Pune and three guides from Uttarkashi started an expedition to Sehastrataal trek from Silla village on May 29. The group was supposed to return on June 7. However, on June 3, while returning to the base camp, 13 trekkers lost their path due to bad weather and got stuck somewhere near Kothli Top area. The location is around 35km away from nearest road.
Soon after getting information, a joint team of forest, revenue department and local villagers was sent to look for the trekkers. On Wednesday, two choppers of the Indian Air Force and a private chopper was engaged for aerial rescue. Moreover, ground teams of SDRF, Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and ITBP were also sent.
As per the latest update, 11 people were rescued by choppers. Two of the are safe and are heading towards Silla village from the base camp. The rescue teams have also recovered five bodies while Search for four missing trekker is still going on.