Dead body found a year after Uttarakhand tragedy: Officer’s body found in the rubble of Rishiganga accident during tunnel excavation

Nearly a year later, the body of another person has been found in the Rishiganga tragedy of Uttarakhand. The dead body was recovered from a tunnel of the ongoing NTPC power project in Tapovan on Tuesday. The project was put on hold after the devastation caused by a cloudburst on February 7 last year. Now the construction work has started again. The body was found while clearing the debris inside the tunnel.

Joshimath police station SHO Rajendra Singh Kholia said that the deceased has been identified as an officer named Gaurav. More people are feared trapped under the debris.

People were trapped in the rubble inside the tunnel

Such was the devastation
The flood that came in Rishiganga carried people away like straw. Sometime before the accident, everyone was sunbathing. At around 10 o’clock a loud sound started in Rishiganga valley. At first the villagers did not understand anything, but after some time when big boulders (round stones), trees and debris started coming in Rishiganga, there was panic. However, there was no damage as the village was above the river. But when the inundation of debris reached Rishi Ganga and Dholi, there was devastation.

The place where the glacier broke was a very high part of the Himalayas.

The accident happened due to the burst of glacier
The accident took place due to the bursting of a glacier in the Rishiganga river, causing massive flooding. More than 200 people went missing in this tragedy. The bodies of more than 80 victims were found, while dozens are still missing. 123 employees and laborers were working at the site during the incident. Many of these people were injured while some were not traced till late evening. Many laborers and workers were trapped in the tunnels of the under-construction power project in Tapovan. People who were working on projects on other sites were suddenly inundated.