The workers rescued in Uttarakhand avalanche are undergoing treatment in the hospital.
Jyotirmath: Many of the 55 laborers living in a container near Mana village in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand have told the story of the day when their camp was destroyed by an avalanche. Gopal Joshi, who was involved in the trapped laborers in the accident, said that he wrapped out in silence on Friday like every day. However, he saw snow flood instead of silence, which was coming towards him at a fast pace. The winter avalanche in the region finally ruined the place where they were working.
‘All this happened in one stroke’
After the avalanche, workers got stuck in a thick layer of snow. 50 workers were rescued, while 4 of them died on Saturday. Joshi, a native of Narayanbagar in Chamoli district, was operating an accelerator machine for the past several months. All these laborers were working in the Border Roads Organization i.e. BRO Camp by Vijay Infra Construction Company. Joshi remembered that all this happened in one stroke. He was admitted to the Jyotirmath Hospital of the Army for treatment along with his 22 colleagues.
‘We heard a sharp thunder’
Joshi said that the weather was bad as the last few days. He said, ‘Snow was falling outside. The incident would have taken place around 6 am. As soon as we came out of the container, we heard a sharp thunder. When we looked upwards, a snow flood was moving towards us. I shouted to alert my colleagues and ran from there. There was already several feet of snow frozen, due to which we could not run fast. After 2 hours, Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel came to save us.
‘Shouted to warn everyone’
Joshi and his associates were brought from Mana to Jyotirmath by army helicopter on Saturday, where they were admitted to the army hospital for treatment. He suffered a minor injury to his head and was in the chest. Vipin Kumar of Himachal Pradesh suffered a back injury. Vipin said that he was buried in snow for about 15 minutes. Kumar said, ‘I was able to get out of the snow when the avalanche stopped. This is my second birth. Another laborer named Manoj Bhandari said that he woke up from the peak of the ‘snow mountain’. Bhandari said, “I shouted to warn everyone and ran behind the loader machine to protect myself.”
Most laborers suffered injuries
3 laborers from Mathura said that their attempt to avoid avalanche was interrupted due to frozen snow there. Jagbir Singh of Amritsar in Punjab said that he and his partner ran towards Badrinath. Most of the 19 people who were rescued and brought to army hospitals were hurt on their body. Two of them suffered serious injuries, who were sent to AIIMS in Rishikesh by helicopter. The workers said that they were living in 5 containers installed on the roadside. There were 55 laborers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, which were contracted by GREF.
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