As many as 680 tourists, stuck in Sela Pass near the Indo-Tibetan border in Arunachal Pradesh following heavy snowfall, were evacuated by the Indian Army on Monday night.
The eastern command of the Army confirmed on Tuesday that few locals were also among those who were rescued from near Tawang. The rescued tourists have come from various parts of the country. Among the evacuated were an 18-month-old child, who had breathing difficulties, and a 70-year-old tourist, whose blood pressure had increased to more than 250.
“They (tourists) were stuck at Sela Pass due to heavy and unexpected snowfall since yesterday afternoon. The total number of vehicles in which they were stuck could be around 320,” said a defence ministry spokesman.
“The critically ill patients were stabilized at the medical post of the brigade and later evacuated,” said the officer.
There has been constant snowfall since Monday afternoon and the temperature was sub-zero between
Ahiragarh and and Sela Pass, according to Army officials.
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Three rescue teams from the nearest base at Baisakhi in Arunachal Pradesh were sent to evacuate the tourists after the Army was informed about the situation. “They worked relentlessly till night and all of them (tourists), with their vehicles, were brought to safety,” said an Army official.
One of the teams, consisting of 20 Army men, led by Havildar Prasan Rai, evacuated as many as 188 stranded vehicles with around 400 tourists in them. They were brought to rescue camp of Army from where they were allowed go back to planes.
Two teams, led by Captain Tarun Singh Guleria and Captain Lavanya Sharma, were responsible for evacuating 280 civilians stranded south of Sela Pass. They were in 132 vehicles.
They Army said conducting rescue work in sub-zero temperature at an altitude of more than 13,000ft in a hazardous terrain, under the failing ambient and lighting conditions, posed a formidable challenge for the teams.
“The troops of the Baisakhi brigade of the blazing sword division toiled for more than seven hours to get all to safety,” said the spokesperson.
The rescue operations stopped at the wee hours on Tuesday.
Last year too, the Army had launched a massive rescue operation on March 18, 2017 and evacuated 127 civilians.