Dead bodies of the seven mountaineers found in an avalanche site in Nanda Devi is set to be brought to base camp in two days time, said a government official on Monday.
Also, ITBP officials said that due to snowfall and poor visibility in the Nanda Devi area since morning, the team which is searching for the eighth missing mountaineer has halted its efforts and is likely to begin the search tomorrow depending on weather conditions.
Speaking to ANI, Pithoragarh District Magistrate (DM), Vijay Kumar Jogdande said, "The dead bodies have been retrieved from avalanche site which is at an altitude of 5,800 meters. The ITBP has made an advance camp and kept the dead bodies there. From the advance camp, the dead bodies will be brought to Nanda Devi base camp which might take two to three days."
"The dead bodies will be brought here with helicopters from the base camp. Thereafter post-mortem will be conducted and only then the dead bodies will be handed over to family members," he said.
Kumar informed, "The eight mountaineers had gone for Nanda Devi east expedition were missing. We launched an ITBP search and rescue team to search for their dead bodies. The ITBP search party have found 7 dead bodies on June 23, however, one mountaineer is still missing.