Lucknow / Tapovan, February 12

Rescuers used heavy machinery to remove slush clogging a tunnel in the Himalayas on Friday in a search for 35 people missing since a February 7 flash flood, though hopes of finding anyone alive were fading.

Those trapped in the tunnel in Uttarakhand were among 171 people still unaccounted for after water, rocks and debris possibly triggered by an avalanche surged down the Dhauliganga river valley, destroying dams and bridges.

So far authorities have found the bodies of 38 people. While scores are believed to have been swept to their deaths, rescue efforts have focused on finding the men in the tunnel connected to the Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric project.

“We have not lost hope.” We have been working with full force, all night, ”said Swati Bhadoriya, the top government official in Chamoli district.

Soldiers deployed to the area have flown a drone inside the tunnel to take pictures and tried to drill a path into it but made little headway. So far there has been no sign of life.

“We cannot give up until we see something.” Even if we consider that no one is alive, we have to think of their families and search for the bodies. We would want the bodies recovered, ”Bhadoriya said.

Scientists now believe the flood, originally thought to have been unleashed by a glacier breaking apart on India’s second highest mountain Nanda Devi and crashing into the river, is more likely to have been caused by an avalanche.

Experts have cautioned there could still be huge amounts of rock, debris, ice and water that could be dislodged due to changes in temperatures.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said he had asked relief workers to be careful after locals reported the formation of a lake near the village of Raini that was hit by the apparent avalanche.

Two more bodies recovered

Meanwhile, two more bodies were recovered from the flash flood-hit areas of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Friday, taking the toll in the calamity to 38, as rescue teams battled on against the odds for the sixth consecutive day to get to 25-35 people. trapped in a sludge-choked tunnel here.

One body was recovered from the rubble at the demolished Rishi Ganga Hydel Project in Raini and the other from Maithana, district administration officials here said.

A separate team of rescuers was formed under the supervision of the executive engineer of the Rural Works Department to expedite the search operation taking the help of local and old photographs of the demolished Rishi Ganga hydel project.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel using excavators and JCBs are dredging through the muck to locate the missing, the officials said.

At Tapovan, besides the continuing sludge clearing and drilling inside the tunnel, an approach road is being built near the Gauri Shankar temple so that a Pokland machine could be sent down in search of those missing in the debris.

A cofferdam is also being constructed at Tapovan to prevent any more water from flushing into the tunnel.

Meanwhile, with scientists spotting a new glacial lake in the higher reaches of Rishi Ganga, an eight-member team of the scientists of the Geological Survey of India was formed to inspect the lake, Chamoli District Magistrate Swati S Bhadauria said.

The GSI team is being sent to inspect the lake and submit its report to the district administration at the earliest, she said. – Agencies