Uttarkashi: Savita Kanswal, a promising mountaineer, who summited Mount Everest and Mount Makalu within 15 days is among at least 10 people who died in an avalanche at Mount Draupadi Ka Danda-2 peak in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the incident.
“It is saddening that we have lost precious lives of those associated with a NIM Uttarkashi mountaineering expedition. Condolences to the bereaved families. Rescue operations are underway and the situation is being closely monitored by the authorities,” PM Modi said in a statement. A resident of Lonthru village in the Uttarkashi district, Savita was part of the 41-member team of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering which was hit by the avalanche.
Amit Bisht, the principal of NIM, confirmed the death of Savita Kanswal in the accident late on Tuesday evening. Savita was an emerging mountaineer from Uttarkashi district who had made her name in the field of mountaineering in a very short time. Savita did the course of a mountaineering instructor with an advanced search and rescue course from Nehru Mountaineering Institute.
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She was also a skilled instructor of NIM. On May 12 this year, Savita hoisted the tricolour on Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. After 15 days, Savita also successfully climbed Mount Makalu (8463 meters). Due to her success, there was a wave of happiness in her native village. On Tuesday, a pall of gloom descended in the area after the news of her death.
Savita spent her childhood in poverty. The youngest of four sisters, Savita had to shoulder the responsibilities of the family and look after the elderly father Radheshyam Kanswal and mother Kamleshwari Devi. However, she defied all the odds to emerge as an extraordinary mountaineer. Savita, who studied in a government school, did a basic course of mountaineering at Nehru Mountaineering Institute Uttarkashi in the year 2013 and then a course of mountaineering instructor with an advanced and search and rescue course.
To pay the course fees, Savita also worked in a company in Dehradun. Savita was posted as a trainer at NIM since the year 2018. On Tuesday, the disaster management authority said a team of five State Disaster Response Force personnel and three instructors from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) were dropped off at the institute's Dokrani Bamak glacier base camp to conduct the search and rescue operation.
Two helicopters from the Indian Air Force (IAF) base camp in Uttar Pradesh's Sarsawa also conducted a recce of the avalanche site before returning to Harshil helipad. Meanwhile the Uttarakhand Police on Wednesday released a list of 28 trainee mountaineers who went missing in the avalanche. The list of trainees includes those from West Bengal, Delhi, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Assam, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
According to NIM Principal Colonel Amit Bisht, 10 bodies were spotted on Tuesday out of which four were recovered. Rescue operations, which had to be halted due to darkness and inclement weather, will be resumed on Wednesday.
