Belongings of 2 Arunachal mountaineers found 2 months after they went missing | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Belongings of 2 Arunachal mountaineers found 2 months after they went missing

Oct 18, 2022 07:40 PM IST

An independent search and rescue team located the belongings of the two missing mountaineers from a mountain located close to the Indo-China border on Monday

Two months after two mountaineers from Arunachal Pradesh went missing, an independent search and rescue team on Monday located their belongings from a mountain located close to the Indo-China border, said a family member of one of the missing mountaineers.

The government efforts to trace the two missing mountaineers were officially called off last month. (Representative Image/AFP)
The government efforts to trace the two missing mountaineers were officially called off last month. (Representative Image/AFP)

Tapi Mra, who climbed Mt Everest in 2009 and became the first person from Arunachal Pradesh to achieve the feat, and his deputy Niku Dao, have been missing since August 17 while attempting to scale the peak of Chiumo, located 6,890 metre above sea level, close to the McMahon Line. The government efforts to trace them were officially called off last month.

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“The team reached Camp II of the mountain on Monday and found tent, sleeping equipment and other belongings like GPS, mobile phone, radio set, clothes and the national as well as Arunachal Pradesh flags,” Yatok Mra Nilo, sister of Tapi Mra, told journalists in Itanagar on Monday.

She said the 13-member search and rescue team, comprising local mountaineers and porters, informed about locating the belongings of the two mountaineers over satellite phone. They were, however, unable to find Mra and Dao, who are believed to be either buried under thick snow or fallen into a crevasse. More details are expected once the team reaches Seppa, the headquarters of East Kameng district.

Dosh Dasi, an office-bearer of Tagin Cultural Society who was monitoring the independent rescue operations, said that Mra and Dao might have been injured in an avalanche and with no help reaching them soon, got buried under snow.

“The climbing season got over in September and now the entire area is covered in snow till the base camp. The team had to dig out the belonging from under snow. With recovery of their items, we have lost hope of finding our brother and Dao alive,” said Nilo.

“It seems an avalanche happened on August 17 and injured both of them. They might have been alive for several days and fell into a crevasse later and got covered in snow. That’s why the bodies haven’t been found,” he said.

Mra’s family members and the Tagin Cultural Society blamed the East Kameng district administration, especially deputy commissioner PA Polumatla for lack of coordination and delay in sending local mountaineers for search and rescue, which they feel could have saved Mra and Dao.

Due to remote location of the mountain and lack of communication network, information about the missing mountaineers reached Seppa, the headquarters of East Kameng district, on August 27—10 days after they went missing from an altitude of around 15,000 ft.

A foot-search that started on September 1 was called off six days later due to poor weather. Later, a team of army climbers and two local mountaineers were dropped at the base camp on September 11 to search for the two mountaineers.

But with no trace of them even at Camp II and weather deteriorating, which could have put the lives of the entire team at risk, the entire operation was called off on September 22 by the East Kameng district administration in consultation with the army officials involved in the search and rescue.

“We are totally dissatisfied with the search and rescue efforts. While the entire operation apparently lasted for 20 days, the real search at CAMP 2 took place only for one-and-a-half hours,” said Nilo.

“The deputy commissioner has to answer why he didn’t allow local mountaineers, who wanted to conduct search operations independently, to go ahead. If permission had been given earlier, the search parties could have found them alive. We demand the DC’s suspension,” she added.

East Kameng deputy commissioner PA Polumatla stated that the district authorities have no information about recovery of Mra and Dao’s belongings by the search and rescue team.

“I don’t have any intimation about such recovery and wouldn’t comment on the accusations made by Mra’s family members about the efforts we had put in to search and rescue both the mountaineers,” Polumatla said.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Utpal is a Senior Assistant Editor based in Guwahati. He covers seven states of North-East India and heads the editorial team for the region. He was previously based in Kathmandu, Dehradun and Delhi with Hindustan Times.

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