Arunachal: Indian Army’s search ops to find missing mountaineer continues

Guwahati: The search and rescue operation so far has not been able to locate the two missing members of a mountaineering expedition of Arunachal Pradesh including Tapi Mra – the first mountaineer from Arunachal Pradesh to scale Mount Everest by Indian Army, the official said on Sunday.

The team will be establishing an improvised, 30-meter-wide crossing, using their expert mountaineering and river crossing skills, said the official.

Due to extremely inclement weather, the party could not cross the confluence of Kameng River and Wapriyang Bung, officially added.

“On the 3rd day of its challenging foot journey, Group 1 makes progress short of Yarchum”, the official said.

On Monday will be the most challenging part of the foot induction route, it said.

Meanwhile, group two successfully reached Longchu on its first day of induction.

However, the Heli SAR team continues to remain on Standby at Seppa on a 30 mins notice to induct directly to Takte Base Camp and commence its search mission in the area of Camp 2. Plan on Monday.

As per the official, group 1 will continue to March forward to Yarchum on the 4th day.

To support the effort of Group 1, Group 2 will follow behind and reach Korongtung, as per plan, the official further added.

Two members of the expedition have been untraceable since August 17 as reported by the balance six members of the expedition who reached Seppa from their expedition base camp on the evening of August 29.

A mountaineering expedition was approved by the Department of Youth Affairs, Arunachal Pradesh on a self-request basis of Shri Tapi Mra to Mount Nyegi Kangtsang in East Kameng District has reported an incident on Monday, 29 August.

Tapi Mra and Niku Dao have gone missing since they had embarked on summiting the Khyar Satam peak, one of the highest with a base camp of 4,500 meters above sea level situated in the East Kameng district