Mortal remains of nine trekkers handed over to their families

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Bodies of all nine Bengaluru trekkers who lost their lives in Uttarakhand due to extreme weather conditions, were flown to the city via Delhi on Friday and handed over to their families here, officials said.

A 22-member trekking team was sent by Himalayan View Trekking Agency, Maneri, on May 29 on a 35-km long trek from Uttarkashi.

The mortal remains arrived on three different flights at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) before they were handed over to the respective families.

Although the state government had initially planned to transport them via a chartered flight on Thursday, the plan was modified owing to the nonavailability of the flight.

The deceased have been identified as Padmini Hegde, Venkatesh Prasad, Asha Sudhakar, Padmanabha Kundapur Krishnamurthy, Sindhu Vakekalam, Vinayak Mungurwadi, Sujatha Mungurwadi, Chitra Praneet and Anita Rangappa, a government official said.

Revenue Minister and the State Minister for Disaster Management, Krishna Byre Gowda, said, “For the moment, all our immediate priorities have been completed. We and the families got some sort of closure. Somehow, all our plans for rescue and recovery worked out and we were able to do it swiftly in a short span of time. The intervention of the government was necessary to spare the individuals the burden of legal procedures. It is the least we could have done for the families,” he said.

Byre Gowda reached Bengaluru on Thursday evening along with 13 survivors. He had flown to Dehradun soon after the incident came to light, in order to monitor the rescue operation.

“With the 13 surviving people back and nine bodies reaching Bengaluru, all 22 trekkers are accounted for. My condolences to families who lost their near and dear ones,” Gowda added.

According to the minister, the trekkers from Karnataka started their trek Tuesday morning in Shastratal Mayali in Uttarakhand. After reaching the destination, the team tried to return to the camp again.

However, on the way back, the weather turned bad due to a blizzard and they were stranded. Hypothermia is said to be one cause of death.