Toll mounts to 26; Still 171 missing

New Delhi: A massive operation led by a joint team of the ITBP, Indian Army, SDRF and NDRF is underway to rescue 39 people, which include power plant workers, trapped inside a tunnel after the glacier burst in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district.

The team had earlier managed to enter the 12-foot high and 15-foot wide tunnel at Tapovan and reach about 100 metres before they were forced to retreat as sludge and water blocked their way.

Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar said that efforts were focussed on rescuing the labourers trapped in the tunnel. Two villages are cut off and essentials are being supplied to them.

The work was complicated by the fact that the tunnel is slightly curved, making difficult to clear the slush, debris and silt blocking it.

Meanwhile, State Emergency Operation Centre officials said the death toll in the disaster reached 26 on Monday while 171 people were still missing, a day after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier possibly burst through its banks at Joshimath. It triggered an avalanche and a deluge that rippled through the Alaknanda river system in the upper reaches of the ecologically fragile Himalayas.

The 202 still missing include those working at hydel power project sites as well as villagers nearby whose homes were washed away with the force of the raging waters, the officials said.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said saving lives and extending all help to the families of the deceased is the state government's priority. Union ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and R K Singh as well as Pauri MP Tirath Singh Rawat, Uttarakhand minister Dhan Singh Rawat also met the affected families in disaster-hit Tapovan and Raini and assured them of all support.Two power projects – NTPC's 480 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project and the 13.2 MW Rishi Ganga Hydel Project – were extensively damaged with scores of labourers caught in tunnels as the waters came rushing in.

While Indian Air Force teams left for the affected areas to ramp up relief efforts, personnel from multiple forces worked through the night. The State Emergency Operation Centre said 27 people were rescued alive. Of these, 12 were saved from the smaller of the two tunnels at the Tapovan-Vishnugad project site and 15 from the Rishi Ganga site.