Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh hilly areas receive light snowfall

Light rainfall was recorded in the Uttarkashi, Bageshwar, Chamoli, and Pithoragarh districts, while the higher reaches received light to moderate snowfall, resulting in roadblocks in some areas due to snow accumulation on Tuesday.

- HT Correspondent

DEHRADUN: Chamoli district magistrate Sandeep Tiwari has ordered a magisterial probe into the avalanche that struck a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp near Mana on Friday last week, killing eight trapped under deep snow.

"We have ordered a magisterial inquiry into the Chamoli incident, and Jyotirmath sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Chandra Shekhar Vashishth, has been assigned as the probe officer. While I have set a 15-day deadline (by March 17) for the submission of the probe report, it could take longer, possibly up to a month," Tiwari said on Tuesday. "Of the 46 people rescued, 36 are stable. Eight workers are being treated at the army hospital in Jyotirmath, while two others are admitted at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh," he said.

The rescue operation following Friday's avalanche near Mana village concluded on Sunday with the recovery of the eighth body. Authorities on Sunday revised the total number of border road construction workers affected by the avalanche to 54 from the previously reported 55, after learning that one worker, Sunil Kumar, had left the accident site before the avalanche struck the campsite. The massive avalanche hit the BRO camp between Mana and Mana Pass between 5:30 am and 6 am on Friday, burying workers inside eight containers and a shed. The workers were engaged in a strategic road project connecting Mana, the last Indian village, to Mana Pass on the China border.