Guwahati: After days of search and rescue operations for the victims of the Uttarakhand avalanche, the teams have found the bodies of Assam’s Deepshikha Hazarika and Meghalaya’s Tiklu Jyrwa.
The mountaineers have been missing since October 4 from Mount Draupadi Ka Danda-II in Uttarakhand.
The body of 35-year-old Tiklu Jyrwa from Meghalaya who went missing in the incident has been recovered. A resident of Upper Lumparing, Jyrwa was a member of the Meghalaya Sport Climbing and Mountaineering Association (MeSCMA).
Condoling the death of the mountaineer, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma tweeted, “We are in touch with the family and are facilitating the transportation of his mortal remains to Shillong. My prayers for his family and loved ones during their hour of grief. May the departed Rest In Peace.”
Hailing from Guwahati’s Rajgarh in Assam, Deepshikha Hazarika is the daughter of Golap Hazarika. Hazarika’s family members have reached Uttarakhand and her body will be brought back to Assam after the postmortem.
Hazarika is Assam’s third mountaineer to have died in the Himalayas.
Rohini Kumar Bhuiyan, the father of mountaineering in Assam, died in a snowstorm on her way back from the 6,940-metre-high Kedarnath dome peak on October 5, 1979. In 2012, mountaineer Rabindra Lal Das died of high-altitude sickness during the 6,162-metre-high Gangstang summit expedition.
At least 29 people were stuck under the snow during the training programme by the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. They were returning from the summit at a height of 17,000 feet when an avalanche hit on Tuesday.
A multi-agency search and rescue operation is underway at the avalanche-hit location. 26 bodies have since been recovered and three are still missing and feared dead. Four out of 26 bodies retrieved so far have already been handed over to their families.
Inclement weather has interrupted search and rescue operations. Aerial rescue operations can be resumed only after the weather improves, District Disaster Management Officer Devendra Patwal said.
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