Indian Army continues search, rescue operation to find missing Arunachal mountaineer

Tezpur: The search operation, which was recently launched by the Indian Army to find two missing members of a mountaineering expedition of Arunachal Pradesh including a mountaineer from Arunachal Pradesh Tapi Mra, continued on Sunday.
According to a statement by Lt Col A S Walia, PRO (Defence), Tezpur, Group 1 made progress short of Yarchum till 6 pm.
"Due to extremely inclement weather, the party could not cross the confluence of Kameng R and Wapriyang Bung. Tomorrow morning, the party will be establishing an improvised, 30-metre wide crossing, using their expert mountaineering and river crossing skills, which will be the most challenging part of the foot induction route," said the release on Sunday.
Group 2 also successfully reached Longchu on its first day of induction.
Heli SAR Team continued to remain on Standby at Seppa on a 30 mins notice to induct directly to Takte Base Camp and commence its search mission in the area of Camp 2.
According to the PRO, Group 1 will continue to march forward to Yarchum on Monday.
"To support the effort of Group 1, Group 2 will follow behind and reach Korongtung, as per plan," said the PRO.
"Heli SAR Team continues to remain on Standby at Seppa on a 30 mins notice to induct directly to Takte Base Camp & commence its search mission in the area of Camp 2," the statement added.

Two members of the expedition have been untraceable since August 17 as reported by the balance six members of the expedition who reached Seppa from their expedition base camp on the evening of August 29.

A mountaineering expedition was approved by the Department of Youth Affairs, Arunachal Pradesh on a self-request basis of Shri Tapi Mra to Mount Nyegi Kangtsang in East Kameng Distt has reported an incident on Monday, 29 August.

Earlier, Lt Col A. S. Walia, PRO (Defence) of Tezpur said that, the Army's highly trained and motivated special forces and Arunachal Scouts teams have been employed for the ground search operations in the challenging terrain of the expedition area.

According to the reports, 37-year-old Tapi Mra - the Adventure Promotion Officer (APO) of Directorate of Youth Affairs, Arunachal Pradesh government, took up an expedition on a self-request basis to Mount Kyarisatam situated in East Kameng district and started his mission on July 27 this year.

Seven other porters were also along Tapi Mra in the mission, but Tapi Mra and one porter Niku Dao have gone missing since August 17. (ANI)