UTTARKASHI: Eight people, including seven trekkers and a guide, remained missing in the Kedartal region of Uttarkashi on Sunday, three days after an avalanche blocked their return route.Two helicopter sorties failed to locate the group or their tents, while heavy snowfall and the threat of further avalanches hampered rescue operations.Authorities deployed another State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) mountaineering team with specialised equipment to intensify the search, officials said.The missing trekkers were identified as Tapas Bauri, Ratan Ghosh, Manoj Khovas, Rintu Mandal and Uday Ghosh, all from West Bengal, and Deepika Verma and Vartika Verma from Uttar Pradesh. Their guide, Siddharth Rana, a resident of Uttarkashi, was also missing.Gangotri National Park deputy director Mayank Garg told TOI that rescue teams had found no trace of the eight despite continuing search efforts.The group had left Gangotri for Kedartal on Oct 27 but became stranded after an avalanche struck the trekking route on Oct 29.Four porters who had moved ahead of the trekkers managed to return safely to Gangotri, while the remaining eight could not make their way back.Saurav Panwar of trekking agency Soul Seekers said heavy snowfall on Oct 29 had prevented the group from returning.The agency alerted the administration on the morning of Oct 30, but helicopter rescue operations began only late on Oct 31, he claimed.Panwar said an earlier rescue attempt might have improved the chances of bringing the group back safely.Meanwhile, the agency sent its own rescue team towards Kedartal.The rescuers managed to spot the stranded group’s tent but had to turn back about a kilometre short of the location because of deep snow and the risk of another avalanche.With the ground route inaccessible, the agency sought a helicopter evacuation.However, two aerial reconnaissance sorties conducted on Sunday failed to locate either the tent or any of the missing people. The eight remained unaccounted for as rescue teams prepared to continue the search amid difficult weather and terrain conditions.
