In the case of stranded mountaineers in Nanda Devi East, Pithoragarh district magistrate Vijay Kumar Jogdande conducted a meeting with Indian Air Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) on Tuesday.
For retrieving eight mountaineers including the five whose bodies were spotted on aerial images on Monday, specialised equipment and experts of ITPB were expected to reach Pithoragarh by Tuesday evening. DM Jogdande told The Pioneer, “We have conducted a meeting and taken inputs from ITBP, SDRF and IAF. Their input is to give proper training before sending our officers for the rescue and retrieving mission. They also said that the mission will be undertaken only when the weather permits.”Deputy Inspector General of ITBP, State Headquarters Bareilly, APS Nimbadia told The Pioneer, “It requires highly specialised work and ITPB is pulling out the specialised equipment and the personnel who are specialists in this work.
By Tuesday evening everything will be available at Pithoragarh and on Wednesday we will first conduct a rehearsal with the helicopter, because when an individual will drop down he has to make balance with the air pressure, he has to sustain it and harness the bodies to be lifted which needs practice and rehearsal.
We are not even sure if there is solid ground under the snow covered area, we cannot say for sure.”He further added, “I’ll be reaching Pithoragarh by Tuesday night and the next course of action will be decided after the meeting with DM and IAF.”SDRF commandant Tripti Bhatt said, “Four of the members from our mountaineering team have already reported there they have informed the DM about their presence. SDRF is at their disposal and the team is adept in search and rescue operations.”
According to the sources, the plan is to drop experts by IAF helicopters and come back again after an hour and in the meantime they can find any survivors and pick the bodies up.