The bodies of seven mountaineers, including an Indian, killed on the way to Nanda Devi East Peak in May were brought down Wednesday, ending an operation that involved ITBP climbers and IAF helicopters.
Besides the IAF's help, it took a 15-member ITBP team a total of 500 hours spanning over 15 days to bring back the mortal remains of seven climbers so that the families of the deceased find a closure of the tragic episode.
The bodies were flown to the Pithoragarh's Naini Saini airport in IAF helicopters in afternoon from a base camp at an altitude of 15,250 ft in the mountains, where a 15-member team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police climbers had brought them down on their shoulders from another base camp at 18,000 ft.
The bodies of eight-member team of the climbers, comprising seven foreigners and one Indian, were first spotted by the IAF's search planes on June 3, days after they were reported missing on May 25.
Following detection of the bodies, lying partially buried in a terrain too difficult to be airlifted from, the ITBP launched its "daredevil" mission on June 13 and managed to reach them on foot after an "arduous" trekking and climbing for several days.
They first brought the bodies to the first base camp at 18,000 ft and then to a second one at a lower altitude.
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From the second base camp, the bodies were first flown down to Munsiyari by helicopters and then taken to the Naini Saini airport in Pithoragarh by another IAF helicopter, District Magistrate V K Jogdande said.
The bodies were then taken to Medical College Haldwani for post-mortem and identification, he added.
At Haldwani's Sushila Tiwari Hospital, one of the bodies was identified to be that of Chetan Pandey, a liaison officer from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, Delhi, Nainital District Magistrate Savin Bansal said late Wednesday night.
Pandey had accompanied the seven-member team of foreign mountaineers on the expedition, Nainital District Magistrate Savin Bansal said.
Pandey's body was handed over to his family after its identification by his kin, he said.
Pandey hailed from Almora in Uttarakhand where his body would be taken tomorrow, the district magistrate added.
Identification of the rest of the bodies may take some time as it would require involvement of their relatives through the embassies concerned, he said.
The body of one of the eight dead mountaineers is still missing.
The climbers' team included four from the UK, two from the United States of America and one each from Australia and India.
"We are still looking for the eighth mountaineer. The missing body is expected to be buried under snow. The body is likely to be retrieved, once the snow melts," said ITBP Director General S S Deswal.
A little penguin doll, carabiners, ropes, foreign currency, mobile phones, passports, thermal clothing, climbing axe, water-resistant pouches, watches and a helmet was among the items that the rescue team retrieved from the bodies of the climbers.
Praising his personnel for carrying out the successful "unprecedented" operation, the ITBP DG told reporters at the forces' headquarters in Delhi that this was a unique and unprecedented operation as the force had never executed a retrieval mission at such a height in the Himalayas.
This was an extraordinary operation given the vagaries of the weather, very difficult and inhospitable terrain but our team brought the bodies with all the respect due to the dead, he said.
The ITBP team team had carried special equipment and deep sensors to retrieve the bodies, he added.
The ITBP chief specifically praised his men, led by ace mountaineer and second-in-command rank officer Ratan Singh Sonal, for carrying the bodies on their shoulders and bringing them down to the base camps.
Deswal also also announced creation of five special rescue and relief teams of the force to undertake similar operations.
The teams will help trekkers and climbers, undertaking expeditions in the Himalayan ranges from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir or in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
"We welcome trekkers from the country and abroad to Indian peaks. There has been an increase in expedition to the mountains. I assure them that we are there for any support and help," he said.
ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said the teams launched the operation on June 14 and finished it successfully in about 500 hours.
A total of twelve mountaineers had initially set out on the expedition to this 7,434-metre-high Nanda Devi East peak but were reported missing on May 25.
Four trekkers were rescued in the initial phase.
The ill-fated expedition was led by well-known British mountaineer Martin Moran, who had scaled the peak twice.
The other members of the team were John Charles McLaren, Richard Payne and Rupert James Whewell (from the UK), Ruth Margaret McCance (Australia), Anthony Edward Sudekum and Ronald Isaac Beimel (US), besides Indian liaison officer Chetan Pandey.
Talking about the operation, spokesperson Pandey said ITBP climbers had to dig out the bodies, which included that of a woman climber, buried under the snow on the western ridge of the peak towards the Pindari glacier on June 23 and since then they were trying to bring them down so that the helicopters could air lift them.
"This operation will be remembered as a milestone in the history of mountaineering search and retrieval and stands out as a rarest of rare feat that was accomplished with success," Pandey said.