Tourists will be taken via the Kunzum Pass to Losar, about 30 kilometers from the incident site, as the road network to Manali via Batal has been severely damaged. Losar)
Post Date – 12:00 PM, Thursday – July 23rd 13th
Simla: On Thursday, rescuers began the evacuation of about 250 tourists, including foreigners, in one of the toughest operations in Himachal Pradesh hit by heavy rains, who have been trapped in snow-covered villages for the past five days. Chanderthal Lake, which is a lake surrounded by the Himalayas. Rahul-Spiti District.
A government spokesman told reporters that tourists would be taken to Losar, about 30 kilometers from the incident site, via the Kunzum Pass, as the road network to Manali via Batal was badly damaged. Ians.
They will be kept there as Lothar supports good government accommodation and medical facilities, and the next route to their destination will be decided later, he said.
“The stranded tourists are now being brought to Losar from Chanderthal. Due to the heavy snow, this is one of the most difficult rescue operations.” Chief Minister Sukhwind Suhu was quoted as saying in a statement. He spent the night overseeing rescue, relief and road reopening operations.
Those stranded included tourists, mainly from the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and three female foreigners — two from Ireland and one from the United States, according to government data. They were stranded as the road was interrupted by rain-battered hills.
“In Chanderthal, there are some challenges, but the situation is under control,” Suku told media after an aerial reconnaissance of media in Manali on Wednesday, where tourists were housed in tented accommodation provided by the state government.
A day earlier, the Chief Minister had commissioned two colleagues, Jagat Singh Negi and Sanjay Awasthi, to travel by road to the scene to oversee the ongoing rescue operation.
The chief minister shared on his official Twitter account aerial photos of Chanderthal, with colorful tents dotted on a white blanket of snow.
“Evacuating them has become very difficult due to heavy snow and bad weather. We are exploring all possible options,” Suhu tweeted.
After a grueling 18-hour journey, Negi and Awasthi arrived in Chandertal early Thursday on rescue transport.
Police Commissioner Satwant Atwal tweeted that the first JCB machine to clear snow and roadblocks from roads has also arrived in Chandertal.
On Wednesday night, Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots refused to land in Chanderthal to evacuate tourists because there was no heliport.
Heavy snowfall in the region this week has also made the move to reopen the road network more difficult, a government official said.
“The snow removal ended last night and only small emergency vehicles were allowed to pass through the Kunzum Pass,” the official said.
It took three days to clear the snow and move the vehicles on the 30-kilometre stretch from Chandetal to Losar.
officials told Ians Weather permitting, visitors from Losar will be taken to Kajah, the headquarters of Spiti, about 320 kilometers from the state capital, Shimla, through the Kinnaur district, passing by the picturesque tourist resort of Manali. Kunzum Pass (4,551 m) equidistant.
The picturesque Spiti Valley is an ideal getaway for trekking through the Himalayas, inaccessible to roads year-round but isolated for more than four months each year due to heavy snowfall.
It reopens once the snow starts to melt after mid-April.
A century ago, Rudyard Kipling described Spiti in his novel The King as “a world within a world” and “a place where the gods dwell”. Little has changed there.
Part of the remote but picturesque Rahul-Spiti region, the Spiti Valley is a cold desert filled with small helmets of Himalayan peaks, bordering Tibet, and takes you into the land of Buddhism and pristine nature.
