Dhasmana blame Uttarakhand govt. for Sahastra Tal tragedy leading to death of nine trekkers
Dhasmana blame Uttarakhand govt. for Sahastra Tal tragedy leading to death of nine trekkers
Dehradun, June 7
On the death of nine trekkers of Karnataka at Sahastra Tal in Uttarakashi district, Suryakant Dhasmana, senior vice-president, Uttarakhand Congress Committee has blamed the Uttarakhand state government for the tragedy. Addressing media persons here today, he said that Uttarakhand government has been conducting adventure tourism activities in the higher Himalayan region without following any Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) endangering the lives of trekkers.
He said that there had been recurring tragic incidents in the higher Himalayan region of the state due to extreme weather conditions but the tourism, forest and home departments of the state government has yet to come with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) while allowing trekking expedition in higher Himalayan region. He said that magisterial inquiry into the Sahastra Tal incident would be a mere eye wash unless all relevant precautions and procedures are followed that are needed for such expeditions.
He further said that the state witnessed the tragic death of 22 trainee mountaineers of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi in October 2022 due to avalanche. Dhasmana said that the state government should immediately involve international reputed mountaineering experts in framing Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for trekking expeditions in High Himalayas.
“ Without following precautions and SOP’s and allowing trekkers to trek in Himalayas is inviting them to trouble. Even in this tragic incidents, all the trekkers were above the age of 30 and one even 71 year old and they were ill equipped to deal with extreme weather condition in which they were unfortunately caught leading to death of nine of them,” he added. Moreover, the trekkers lacked communication equipment in case of any emergency, he charged
Regarding other adventure activities in Uttarakhand including river rafting, bungee jumping , trekking and mountaineering, the state government should follow strict norms for the safety of all the adventure tourists with mandatory health and age check-ups for any such activities which involve risk.
