INDIAN ARMY LAUNCHES SEARCH OPERATION AFTER TWO MOUNTAINEERS GO MISSING

The Indian army launched a search and rescue operation on Saturday to find two missing members of a mountaineering expedition of Arunachal Pradesh, including Tapi Mra, the first mountaineer from Arunachal Pradesh to scale Mount Everest.

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

A mountaineering expedition was approved by the Department of Youth Affairs, Arunachal Pradesh on a self-request basis by Tapi Mra to Mount Nyegi Kangtsang.

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 Deputy Commissioner of East Kameng district, Tapi Mra and one member of the expedition have been untraceable since 17 August.

Following the incident, the Arunachal Pradesh government has sought help from the Indian Army’s Tezpur-based Gajraj Corps in the search and rescue operation.

The Indian Army has already mounted the operation and two ALH and two Cheetah helicopters have been put on standby. These will be used for aerial reconnaissance of the area, with one of the team members onboard once the weather clears.

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

Tapi Mra was joined in the mission by seven other porters, but him and Niku Dao have been missing since August 17.

Tapi Mra and Niku Dao have gone missing since they embarked on Khyar Satam peak.