Four Navy personnel caught in avalanche, bodies found

New Delhi, Oct 2 (UNI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday expressed grief over the death of Navy personnel in an accident during a mountaineering expedition, after bodies of four of the five missing personnel was found on Saturday.

“Deeply anguished by the tragic death of four Navy personnel who were part of the Indian Navy mountaineering expedition to Mt. Trishul. The nation has not only lost precious young lives but also courageous soldiers in this tragedy,” Singh said in a tweet.

“My heart goes out to the bereaved families of Lt Cdr Rajnikant Yadav, Lt Cdr Yogesh Tiwari, Lt Cdr Anant Kukreti and Hari Om MCPO II. My thoughts are with their families in this hour of tragedy. Praying for early locating of the remaining team members,” he said.

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat also condoled the loss of lives.
“I express profound grief and condolences on the unfortunate incident which caused casualties of four Naval mountaineers due to Avalanche during the expedition to Mount Trishul in Uttarakhand,” he said.

Bodies of four missing mountaineers was recovered from Mount Trishul, 320 kms from Dehradun, in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli after an extensive search operation.

A 20-member team of mountaineers of the Indian Navy had embarked on an expedition to the Mount Trishul on September 3 from Mumbai.
On October 1, five Navy personnel had gone missing after getting caught in an avalanche short of reaching the peak.

Navy said efforts were on to locate one more navy personnel and a porter who went missing in the avalanche.