NEW DELHI: The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on Thursday traced the bodies of three missing trekkers near Barua Pass in Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of 15,000 feet.
The mountaineering paramilitary force said the bodies are being extricated from snow and being carried by the personnel of the 17th Battalion of ITBP and expected to reach the road head by Thursday evening. The three trekkers from Maharashtra, identified as Deepak Rao, Ashon Bale and Rajendra Pathak, died due to heavy snowfall in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, while the 10 other trekkers were rescued on October 25.
On October 17, a group of 13 trekkers – 12 from Maharashtra and 1 from Kolkata started their trekking from Rohru to Burua village in Kinnaur district but they were stranded at Burua Kanda area due to heavy snowfall in the region. Earlier this week, at least 11 of 17 trekkers had gone missing due to heavy snowfall and inclement weather, during a trek to Chitkul in Himachal Pradesh via Harsil in Uttarkashi. Presently the ITBP primarily covers 3,488 km from the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jaachep La in Arunachal Pradesh.
Despite its deployment to protect the India-China border, the force is also playing an important role in many internal security duties and operations against Left Wing Extremism in Chhattisgarh as well as protecting the lives of trekkers.
