Four of 10 trekkers from West Bengal who went missing on Harsil-Chitkul trek route found dead

KOLKATA: At least four of the 10 trekkers from Bengal, who went missing at an altitude of over 5,000 metres after they were caught in an avalanche triggered by a snowstorm on the Harsil-Chitkul trek route between Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, were found dead by search and rescue teams on Friday. While their bodies have been recovered and brought to Harsil, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has recovered two more bodies from the trek route, but they haven’t been identified yet.
The only missing trekker from Bengal who has been rescued till now is Mithun Dari, 32. Hailing from Prasadpur in Bishnupur, South 24 Parganas, he is currently undergoing treatment at the Harsil Army Hospital. In a brief phone conversation with his sister-in-law Susmita, Dari said he had seen the avalanche sweep over the others but was unaware of their condition.
Uttarkashi district disaster management officer Devendra Patwal confirmed that of the five bodies that had been recovered, four were from Kolkata and its suburbs while the fifth trekker was from Delhi.
Search and rescue missions for the remaining missing trekkers from the state will continue on Saturday, Patwal added.
The bodies are expected to be flown down to Kolkata on Saturday. State government officials said they would inform the families once they get a formal message from the Uttarakhand government.
Meanwhile, in the absence of any confirmation, family members of the missing and dead trekkers continued to live in uncertainty, fearing the worst. Most had last spoken to them on October 14. While they have heard that bodies have been recovered, they aren’t sure if their missing son, husband or brother is among them.
Subhojit Das of Nepal Bhattacharjee Street near Kalighat, whose brother Shibayan (28) is missing, had last heard from him a week ago when he was in Uttarkashi. A medical representative, Shibayan was an avid trekker and was moving towards Lamkhaga Pass when he last spoke to his family. “I have tried to contact the administration to get his whereabouts but no one has informed us anything yet,” said Subhojit.
Also in the trekking group are Tanmay Tiwary from Thakurpukur and Vikas Makal (33) and Sourav Ghosh (34), both from Nepalganj in South 24 Parganas. Local MLA and minister of state for transport Dilip Mondal said he had heard about the deaths of some trekkers and efforts were on to bring the bodies back.
Family members of Sadhan Kumar Basak (63), a resident of Jaigir Road in Thakurpukur, are also spending days and nights in anxiety. The veteran trekker had joined three friends from Howrah’s Bagnan — Sagar De (27), Chandra Sekhar Das (34) and Sarit Sekhar Das (35) — and another friend from Payradanga Gopalpur in Ranaghat — Pritam Roy (22) — who had left Kolkata on October 12.
(Inputs from Dwaipayan Ghosh, Monotosh Chakraborty, Rupak Banerjee and Ashis Poddar)