Bodies of 5 mountaineers, part of team that went missing in Nanda Devi, spotted: IAF
Pithoragarh: Indian Air Force helicopters Monday spotted the bodies of five of the eight mountaineers who went missing en route to the Nanda Devi East peak in Uttarakhand, the IAF said.
The eight-member team consisting of climbers from the UK, the US and Australia went missing on the way to the Nanda Devi East peak.
Bodies of five mountaineers were sighted near an unscaled peak adjoining Nanda Devi East during an air search by IAF helicopters on Monday, Pithoragarh District Magistrate V K Jogdande said.
Apparently, the mountaineers were perished in an avalanche while ascending an unscaled peak near the Nanda Devi East peak after they failed to scale the latter, he said.
The IAF also tweeted about spotting the bodies.
"Today, #IAF crew spotted five bodies in the Himalayas during a #SearchAndRescue operation for missing mountaineers. A team of eight climbers had gone missing near the Nanda Devi peak over a week ago," it said.
The bodies were sighted after an air search was conducted over the peak on the basis of clues provided by four climbers from the UK who were rescued during a sortie undertaken on Sunday.
"We are sending a report to the Centre. Further rescue operation will be conducted after we get instructions," Jogdande said.
"We have an expert team from State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), besides experts from Indian Mountaineering Foundation. In addition to these teams, we have stationed our search teams at Laspa and Bugdiyar camps close to the Nanda Devi base camp in Munsiyari," he said.
Sub-divisional magistrate of Munsiyari, K N Goswami, said, "It is now ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) and SDRF and Air Force teams that will conduct the search operation with help of expert mountaineers and local villagers."
Led by well-known British mountaineer Martin Moran, the team went missing on way to the 7434-metre-high Nanda Devi East peak in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district.
A liaison officer of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation in New Delhi was also part of the team. The team had left Munsiyari on May 13 to scale the peak but did not return to the base camp on the appointed date of May 25.
Besides Moran, the team members were John McLaren, Richard Payne, Rupert Havel (all from the UK), Ruth Macrain (Australia), Anthony Sudekum, Rachel Bimmel (both from the US) and liaison officer Chetan Pandey, Jogdande said.
Moran had scaled the peak twice in the past, he said. The route to the peak begins from Munsiyari, about 132 km from the district headquarters.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Telangana CM urges Amit Shah to increase sanctioned strength of IPS officers in state
Hyderabad (PTI): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Wednesday night and urged him to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state in view of its growing administrative and security needs.
The two leaders also discussed the recent surrender of several senior Maoist leaders before the Telangana Police and other issues.
"During the meeting, the two leaders discussed the issue of Maoist surrenders and their rehabilitation. The chief minister informed Shah that significant improvements in policing have taken place in Telangana over the past two years," an official release here said.
Highlighting that 591 Maoists have laid down their arms and joined the mainstream of society during this period, the chief minister said the state government was providing them compensation and rehabilitation assistance as per the rules.
He requested the Union home minister to extend financial support from the central government for development works in the backward regions of the state.
Reddy also urged Shah to increase the sanctioned strength of IPS officers to the state from 83 to 105 in line with the state's growing administrative and security needs, the statement said.
The first cadre review after the formation of Telangana was conducted in 2016, while the next review, due in 2021, was delayed and finally carried out in 2025. Even then, only seven additional IPS officers were allocated to the state, the chief minister informed Shah and requested that the third cadre review be conducted in 2026 as per the schedule.
Reddy explained that Telangana, like the rest of the country, is facing several modern challenges, including cybercrime, drug trafficking, white-collar crimes, and other emerging security threats.
He highlighted the reorganisation of the Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Malkajgiri Police Commissionerates, the proposed formation of the Future City Commissionerate and the rapidly growing population in Hyderabad to underline the increasing administrative requirements of the state.
