Four more bodies found, toll rises to 14; 20-25 still missing

CM meets the injured, announces Rs5 lakh for kin of deceased

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Nugalsari (Kinnaur), August 12

Four more bodies were retrieved today from the wreckage of an HRTC bus buried under the debris of a massive landslide between Chaura and Nugalsari (Kinnaur), taking the death toll to 14. Around 20 to 25 persons are still missing.

The rescue operations were resumed this morning and a team of 17 battalion of the ITBP traced the wreckage of the bus between the National Highway No. 5 and the road below and retrieved four bodies. Shooting stones and boulders rolling down after brief intervals hampered the rescue operations on the 150-metre stretch.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, who visited the landslide site, said that the rescue work was going on in full swing but rolling stones and shooting boulders were posing a risk and hindering the smooth operations.

There is no authentic information about the number of persons trapped in the HRTC bus. It may take one or two more days to complete the rescue operations as machinery could not be deployed on steep slopes and the rescue work had to be done manually. “The bus has been traced while other vehicles have also been pulled out of the debris,” he added.

The Chief Minister also visited the Community Health Centre at Bhawanagar and enquired after the well being of the injured and wished them a speedy recovery. He also met the next of kin of the deceased and the family members of those missing. He announced an immediate relief of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each to the injured persons, besides free medical treatment.

The deceased have been identified as Rohit, Vijay Kumar, Meera Devi, Nitisha, Prem Kumari, Kamlesh Kumar, Vanshuka, Gyan Dassi, Devi Chand, Radhika, Bhupender and Lakshman Thapa.

The injured included Prashant, Varun Menon, Rajender, Daulat, Charan Jeet Singh, Mahinder Pal (bus driver), Gulab Singh (conductor), Saveen Sharma, Chander Gyan, Arun, Anil Kumar, and Kaizang Negi.

The relatives of the persons feared trapped in the HRTC bus buried under huge boulders and mud were camping at the landslide site, anxiously waiting for some good or bad news. On July 25, nine tourists were killed by shooting boulders near Batseri on the Sangla-Chitkul road in Kinnaur district.

HRTC bus was carrying 24 passengers: Driver

Rolling stones were falling from the hilltop and we (driver and conductor) parked the bus and went to take stock of the situation. The moment we returned stones started falling where the bus was parked. While we were asking other people to reverse their vehicles, a massive landslide occurred and we saved our lives by taking shelter under a rock, said Mahinder Pal, driver of the HRTC bus. He added that there were 24 passengers in the ill-fated bus.

Cops rescued us in 3rd attempt: Bolero driver

Charanjit Singh, driver of a Mahendra Bolero SUV that was buried under the landslide, had a miraculous escape. He said that as soon as the vehicles stopped at the landslide site, boulders started rolling down the hill and several vehicles were buried under the debris. An HRTC bus also rolled down the hill with the force of the landslide and the passengers cried for help for more than one and a half hour. The scene was so frightful that no person dared to reach out to them.

“We were in knee-deep mud. A thought came to my mind that when a mouse could dig a hole, why could not I and started removing the mud with my hands. The police rescue teams made two attempts to save us but falling boulders prevented them from advancing. However, they succeeded in their third attempt to rescue us and we felt that we were very fortunate to be alive,” he said.