No clue of missing Bengaluru mountaineer, says Lahaul and Spiti DC Neeraj Kumar

Dipender Manta

Mandi, June 17

There is no clue about the missing Bengaluru mountaineer, who had been stuck in crevasse at CB-13 glacier (5300 m height) ahead of Batal in Lahaul and Spiti on Thursday during a trekking expedition in the area.

Lahaul and Spiti Deputy Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said, “Vedavyasa, a native of Bengaluru, was on trekking expedition along with other three climbers at CB-13 glacier in Lahaul and Spiti on Thursday, when he slipped and stuck in a crevasse 20 ft down in the area. The incident occurred on Thursday morning but the information was received by the administration late evening yesterday. Due to the remote area, there was no mobile phone connectivity, which delayed the information to the administration by his companions.”

“As soon as we received the information about the missing victim, I sent four rescue teams, as Kaza (5 member), Losar Police Team with local (4 members) along with Tehsildar Lahaul, a team of Atal Bihari Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (7 member) and Dogra Scout team to the spot to lead rescue operation in the area to evacuate the victim safely. Due to darkness, the rescue teams could not reach the spot at night but today early this morning they moved to the spot to lead the rescue operation,” said the DC.

“During search operation in the area today, the victim was still untraceable as information received from the spot. It is believed that the victim has slipped down from current spot, so he was not visible to the rescue team. The rescue teams are engaged in a search operation to locate the missing victim” he added.

DC said that the victim was accompanied by Prasanna of Bangalore, Ravi of Jaipur and Kushal of Shimla in Himachal.

However as time is passing, the chances of safe evacuation of victims are is getting bleak from the area because there is freezing temperature.

In April this year, a 24-year-old female tourist of Jaipur died at Koksar in Lahaul and Spiti, when she slipped into a gorge as the surface of snow she was walking on caved in. However she was traced out within four hours but could not save her.