Tales of survival, sadness and hope from Uttarakhand disaster

The Uttarakhand glacier disaster has become a prolonged nightmare for many. The tragedy that gripped Chamoli district on February 7 not only took the lives of at least 58 people but left a deep scar on the psyche of the survivors.

Trapped amid the desolation of snow-clad mountains, they lurked in the region between night and death. As they finally came out, they had a tale to tell. A story of courage and determination against adversity. Above all, it made us realize that the true meaning and beauty of life, in the end, is the hunger to live, and that is what drives human beings to struggle for existence.

A ray of hope in mobile network

They had lost any hope of survival when one of them found that his mobile phone network was working. They contacted the authorities who rescued them from an underground tunnel at Tapovan.

"We heard people screaming at us to come out of the tunnel but before we could react, a sudden gush of water and heavy silt swamped upon us," rescued Tapovan power project worker Lal Bahadur said. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) saved him along with his 11 colleagues.

Until today, eleven bodies have been recovered from the tunnel at the National Thermal Power Corporation's Tapovan-Vishnugad project site, where about 30 people were initially feared trapped.

300 metres deep in tunnel

In the minds of the rescued workers, the moment when water gushed inside the tunnel, the sounds of people screaming and the rush to cling on to something remain vivid. "We were 300 metres deep in the tunnel when the water gushed in. We got trapped," Nepal resident Basant said.

They were not the only ones frightened. When Rajesh Kumar saw the water flooding the hydroelectric power complex near the tunnel where he and his colleagues were working, he thought of only one thing: Death.

“We didn’t think we were going to make it,” the 28-year-old told the AFP news agency from his hospital bed. “Suddenly, there was a sound of whistling … there was shouting, people were telling us to come out. We thought it was a fire. We started to run, but the water gushed in. It was like a Hollywood movie."

The tunnel filled with slush and mud. Credit: ITBP

Even now, bright lights illuminate the surreal scene deep inside the tunnel: slush and mud, tread marks of vehicles that have been going in and out for the past week, and a single excavator still at work.

Three more bodies of the estimated 30 people initially feared trapped inside the Tapovan hydel project tunnel in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district were pulled out Tuesday. But the pace of work during the day has been slow, officials say.

Water is seeping out from the yet to be cleared portion of the tunnel, and is being continuously pumped out.

'Thank God our hands didn't lose their grip'

Many rescued workers who were stuck inside the tunnel for days did not give up. The men clung to scaffolding rods in the tunnel for four hours, keeping their heads above water and debris, and shouted words of encouragement.

“We just kept telling each other – come what may, we must not let go of the rods. Thank god our hands did not lose their grip,” said Kumar.

Rescue ops continue inside
the Tapovan Tunnel.
Credit: PTI Photo

They climbed across the rock debris and finally reached the mouth of the tunnel. As the proverbial phrase goes, there was light at the end of the tunnel, giving the hint of a small opening. It was enough for them to shout for help, to let the rescuers know about their existence.

Among the workers was Sunil Dwivedi when the tragedy struck. "We were on duty inside the tunnel when people started screaming, asking us to come out. We were surprised, thinking of what could have happened. Suddenly, water rushed inside the tunnel in force and trapped us; we could not come out. We were 300 metres inside the tunnel. We started clinging on to iron rods hanging from the ceiling so that our faces were above the water. We stayed like that for an hour,” he said, as per an India Today report.

Repeated appeals to save their home

The villagers living there also have a story to recount. It is one of fear, of repeated appeals to protect nature, of desperate attempts to save their home. The rampant drilling of stones, reckless muck dumping next to the river bed, and felling of trees, forced the locals from Raini village, where the Rishiganga project had come up, to move Uttarakhand High Court in 2019.

In their petition, the villagers observed that the authority used to dump the waste in Rishi Ganga. “We noticed that blatant stone crushing activity was being carried out right on the river bed, flouting all norms that govern stone crushing activity in this area,” Kundan Singh, a resident of Raini village said in the PIL.

A perpetual fear has gripped the villagers. After all, they are the ones dependent on the mountains for livelihood and shelter.

No connectivity

There are villages cut off from the rest of the world because of the glacier burst. DH reported that 13 villages in the Himalayan ranges lost road connectivity as five bridges, including one on the road outside the village and stretching to the China border, were washed away.

"Raini Chak Lata, Pang, Suki, Bhallagaon, Suraithota, Tolma, Long Segdi (Tamak) and Jumma –located across the river Rishiganga have lost road connectivity, Sher Singh Butola, Assistant Commandant, First Battalion," ITBP said. “We have pressed helicopters into service, and they have been evacuating those requiring medical help and airdropping food supplies,” he added.

The villagers are waiting to be connected with the outside world, desperate to hear the familiar voices of their loved ones who are missing since the day of the tragedy.

Riveting tale of rescue operation

Multiple agencies including the Indian Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were pressed to carry out rescue operations for those feared trapped in tunnels at Tapovan.

The rescue workers deserve a great round of applause for the bravado they displayed during the crisis, says Aparna Kumar, Deputy Inspector General of the ITBP, as she describes the riveting tale of their rescue operation to DH. A mountaineer who has scaled the tallest peaks on all seven continents of the world, she considers the rescue operation to be her finest moment.

When the ITBP battalion stationed at Joshimath heard the sound of the glacier burst, they immediately knew what the danger was and rushed to Raini village. A second-team had reached the NTPC site at Tapovan. The team at Raini village reported that everything there had been submerged.

When all that was beautiful was gone...

The scene in front of the teams was a chaotic one. For Aparna, it was traumatic. All that was beautiful was gone, all that became familiar vanished in the blink of an eye. And then, a humungous rescue operation began.

The team at Raini was called back at Tapovan, as chances of finding survivors there were deemed higher. A huge boulder blocked the silt flushing tunnel, and the team had barely any equipment. They broke it using whatever implements they had at hand, removed the slush with their bare hands. The rescuers cleared the debris with the spades, used axes to remove other obstructions and rescued 12 people using ropes.

Miracles do happen

As Aparna describes, "That was one of the most miraculous rescues they had done. This was the quickest response. It was only a miracle that we could rescue those people."

The fight is not over yet. Surrounded by the imposing mountains threatening to unleash devastation, the rescue teams are working day and night to find those still trapped inside the tunnel, and they will do so for days to come. As NDRF Commandant PK Tiwari said, "We found a survivor in Himachal Pradesh even on the 10th day of a similar tragedy. There are miracles. But there are lakhs of metric tonnes of sludge in the tunnel. However, as a soldier and a rescuer, I can only say the operations will continue till the last victim is reached."

(With inputs from agencies)