Tapovan/Dehradun
Rescuers on Sunday recovered 13 more bodies, including the first ones to be pulled out from the sludge-choked Tapovan tunnel where a massive operation to reach about 30 people trapped inside began after a flash flood in Chamoli district a week ago. 6 bodies were recovered from the Tapovan power project tunnel, 6 from Raini upstream and 1 from the riverbank in Rudraprayag, taking the confirmed death toll in the Uttarakhand disaster to 51.
Officials said over 150 people still remain missing after the February 7 devastation.
Bodies of victims were being found at different locations by the river over the past week, but rescuers had so far failed to reach anyone - dead or alive - in the tunnel network at the National Thermal Power Corporation's 520 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project.
The men found dead Sunday included Alam Singh from Tehri, Anil (Dehradun) Jitendra Kumar (Jammu), Shesh Nath (Faridabad), JItendra Dhanai (Tehri), Suraj Thakur (Kushinagar) Jugal Kishore (Punjab), Rakesh Kapur (Himachal), Harpal Singh (Chamoli), Ved Prakash (Gorakhpur), Dhanurdhari (Gorakhpur).
Meanwhile, the body of a missing foreman from Doda, J&K was recovered in Joshimath.