Massive avalanche hits Badrinath: 25 workers trapped under snow, 32 pulled to safety, CM Dhami assesses rescue efforts

Indian army personnel carrying out rescue efforts after the avalanche struck Uttarakhand's Chamoli district (Image: PTI)

An avalanche struck Badrinath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, trapping 57 workers who were clearing snow to aid army movement. So far, 32 workers have reportedly been rescued, while 25 remain stranded after the avalanche impacted a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) camp near Mana village.

The 57 labourers were at the camp when the avalanche struck between Mana and Mana pass in the morning, Chamoli District Magistrate Sandeep Tiwari said. The workers were employed by a private contractor for road construction.

Braving continuous snowfall and rain, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams departed for the avalanche site, roughly 300 km from Dehradun. The Indian Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and BRO teams are also present at the spot.

"Out of the 57 BRO labourers trapped in the avalanche, 16 have been rescued. Efforts are on to rescue the rest. The help of ITBP and other departments is being taken in the rescue operations. Our disaster management department and the entire administration is fully alert," Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told reporters earlier.

"Our effort is to rescue all safely as soon as possible," he said.

The Chief Minister also took stock of rescue efforts to free the workers trapped. He reached the state disaster control room in order to review the efforts.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh took to social media platform X to post, "An unfortunate avalanche has occurred in the Mana area of Joshimath (Uttarakhand) today impacting the GREF camp of BRO. Spoke to CM Shri @pushkardhami regarding the situation. The administration is providing all possible assistance to the affected Rescue efforts by local Army units are also underway. All efforts to rescue the trapped personnel are being undertaken by utilising all available resources."

Earlier, Chamoli district magistrate Sandeep Tiwari had said that an orange alert was issued for district due to heavy rainfall and snow.

"The higher altitude areas such as Badrinath Dham, Hanumanchatti, Malari area, and Auli are experiencing heavy snowfall, while other tehsils are experiencing continuous rainfall," he had said.