Over 100 people rescued from Himachal’s Baralacha La amid snowfall after 15-hour-long operation

Shimla, May 19

Around 110 people, including tourists, stranded due to snowfall at Baralacha La in Lahaul and Spiti district were rescued after a 15-hour-long operation, police said on Friday.

The people, including 48 women and seven children, travelling in 34 vehicles got stuck on the one-way road at Baralacha La after the road turned slippery due to snowfall on Thursday night and a Leh-bound truck developing a snag, the Lahaul and Spiti Police added.

Tough topography and cold weather posed challenges for the rescue teams of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and Lahaul and Spiti Police, taking them almost 15 hours to shift the people to safer places, the statement said.

The rescued people were taken around 15 km away to a BRO accommodation at Zing Zing Bar, it added.

The Baralacha La is a high mountain pass in the Zanskar range connecting Lahaul and Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh to the Leh district in Ladakh.