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Indian Troops, Release Last Moments of Nanda Devi Mountaineers

New Delhi (Sputnik): India’s border police have released footage of the last moments of a 12-member mountaineer team that went missing during a trek to Nanda Devi, the second highest peak in India.
Sputnik

The video was found by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), during an extremely difficult mission to recover the bodies of the eight mountaineers. The footage was saved on the memory card of a camera that was mounted on the helmet of one of the climbers.

The Indian Air Force had rescued four UK nationals earlier but had to abandon further search efforts due to unfavourable weather. The group consisting of UK, US, Australian and Indian citizens had gone missing on 26 May.

A team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) trekked to the 21.000-ft range and located the bodies buried under deep snow. In a 500-hour operation, the alpinists were brought down.

 

“It was a first of its kind and daring rescue operation undertaken by our men,” said Vivek Kumar Pandey, the spokesperson of ITBP, while releasing the last visuals of the team of mountaineers near the summit.

Nanda Devi is the second-highest mountain in India, part of the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand state.

 

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