Avalanche Survivors Share Their Harrowing Experience
DEHRADUN: In a shocking turn of events, workers in a remote area found themselves at the mercy of nature’s fury. One moment, they were nestled in their container homes, the biting cold of the mountains surrounding them, and the next, they were engulfed by a roaring avalanche.
Ganesh Kumar, a road construction worker from Pithoragarh, recalls the terrifying moment: “It happened so fast, we had no time to think. One moment, we were asleep. The next, the entire container was flung ahead, rolling over and over. It must have been 50, maybe 60 metres. We were just… thrown… like puppets.”
The Silence After the Storm
Once the chaos subsided, an eerie silence enveloped the site. “Darkness, silence, and the unbearable cold wrapped around us like a shroud,” another survivor described. Trapped under a thick layer of snow, the men struggled to breathe, their bodies stiffening from the cold. “The snow was everywhere – pushing against us, pressing into our chests. We tried shouting, but our voices were swallowed by the snow,” he added.
Hope Amid Despair
Hours passed agonizingly slow, with despair creeping in. Just when it seemed all hope was lost, faint sounds of footsteps and voices broke through the silence. “At first, I thought I was imagining it,” one worker said. As rescuers from the Army and ITBP began to dig through the snow, the survivors felt a surge of hope. “They were our saviours – farishtey (angels),” one recalled, trembling at the memory of their narrow escape.
Remembering the Fallen
Manoj Bhandari, another survivor from Uttarkashi district, expressed the haunting pain of loss: “Some of our friends didn’t make it. That pain… it’s not going anywhere.” The chilling experience serves as a reminder of the unpredictable nature of life in the mountains, where the beauty of the landscape can quickly turn into a tragedy.
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