ALL 13 trekkers, including 10 foreign nationals, who were reported missing Saturday in Pangi, a remote, rugged tehsil of Chamba district, returned back to Pangi on Sunday. All of them are safe and sound, officials said.
District administration officials added that the trekkers were “not missing” and were going according to their schedule and had in fact planned to reach Pangi on Sunday.
Among the trekkers are nine UK nationals – eight men and one woman, one Ireland national and three Indians from Uttarakhand.
The trekkers were identified as Keaton Jones, Stephen Mark Greenhalgh, Ian Philip Norman-Wells, Mark Chadwick, Davis James Sharpe, Oliver Birkill, Phil Jardine, John Edward Rings, Phillips Jane Cockman, all UK nationals, Declan Phelan, an Ireland national, Manisha Sharma, Chetan Pande and Janak Singh, all Indian nationals. Chetan Pandey is from Indian Mountaineering Foundation, Delhi.
The trekkers had moved towards Pangi side, considered one of the most dangerous and treacherous treks in Chamba, on September 17 and from there they were moving ahead when they lost contact due to bad weather. Chamba Police had sent a team including cops, local porters and mountaineers to search for them Saturday.
Chamba SP Dr Monika said, “We had sent our teams yesterday because we got information from locals that some trekkers had gone missing but our team were able to establish contact with them and found them safe,” said SP.
During the months of September and October, a large number of trekking enthusiasts come to Himachal from across the world as this time period, after monsoons and before the onset of winter, is considered ideal.
But this time, the weather took a turn for the worse, leaving several trekkers stranded in Lahaul-Spiti and Chamba districts.
According to sources, nearly 100 shepherds with 7,000 sheep are also stranded in Bara Bhangal trek in Kagra district, adjoining to Chamba, and also they are short of food supplies. The district administration had sent a team of officials there on Sunday to locate them.
However, Kangra Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar told The Indian Express that these reports were yet to be confirmed.
“Shepherds usually go on such treks during summer season and return to lower ranges in the winter,” said he.
It is learnt that two footbridges on the Uhal river, a tributary of Beas River, got damaged due to which the shepherds, who had to use these bridges to cross from Bara Bhangal towards Kangra side could not be possible and they left stranded.
Kangra DC said one bridge, called Gesda, has been damaged while the other bridge has been restored and can be used by pedestrians.
Meanwhile in Kullu, the right bank of the Kullu-Manali National Highway has been opened on Sunday for movement of light vehicles after repairing the Patli Kullu and Dhobi bridges. As this highway could be reopened only after nine days of the rain disaster as there was no connection between Kullu and Manali due to heavy damage to bridges and roads on this highway. “Still, heavy vehicles could not be allowed here for some more time as the repair work at Rangari ahead of Patli Kulh is going on as there was huge damage caused to road here due to rain flesh flood,” said Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Manali. He also informed that rescue operations from Rohtang Tunnel were ongoing through buses and now the snow has been cleared upto Baralacha La, which is 180 km from Manali, in Lahaul and the vehicles like trucks, cars etc. have started moving towards Rohtang now.
He said by tomorrow, the situation will start returning to normal on Kullu-Manali and Manali- Lahaul Highway. Kullu- Manali witnessed clear weather on Sunday.