Eight road construction workers died after becoming trapped under an avalanche in northern India, according to the Indian Army on Sunday. Rescuers managed to evacuate 46 other workers from the site, which was buried under several feet of snow.
The avalanche struck early on Friday in the village of Mana, located in the state of Uttarakhand, while the workers were at their camp.
Disaster response teams coordinated the rescue efforts amid extreme weather conditions, facing challenges due to continuous snowfall and rain that halted operations multiple times. Rescuers utilized GPS, sniffer dogs, and thermal imaging cameras to locate the buried workers.
The Indian Meteorological Department has issued warnings about the potential for further avalanches in the region, which is recognized as a gateway for Himalayan mountain trekking.
The rescued workers, many of whom were in critical condition, were airlifted to hospitals in the nearby town of Joshimath. The workers were part of the Border Roads Organization, a division of the Indian armed forces responsible for developing and maintaining road networks in border areas.
Mana is situated at an altitude of 3,200 meters (over 10,000 feet) and is approximately 15 miles from the Tibetan border. During winter, the village's entire population migrates to lower elevations to avoid heavy snowfall.
Uttarakhand is susceptible to avalanches and floods, with one of the country's most devastating natural disasters occurring in 2013, when flooding resulted in over 1,000 fatalities. In 2021, an avalanche at a Border Roads Organization camp in the district that includes Mana claimed the lives of 11 individuals.
As the rescue operations in Uttarakhand concluded, efforts continued in southern India to reach eight workers trapped in a tunnel following a ceiling collapse, with officials indicating that the chances of survival for those workers are very remote.