The team of five officials, including Mehkar assistant SP Suhail Sharma, who were at the Everest base camp for an All India Services expedition, was rescued and brought to Kathmandu. The team was in the tent when an avalanche struck the camp.
Maharashtra cadre IPS officer Suhail Sharma, who was panting heavily when he arrived at Lukla, told dna that the ground was shaking violently at the base camp and an avalanche-like something struck our tents. "I felt as if a part of the mountain fell down. My tent was gone and all I was left with was my sunglasses," recounts Sharma. He started walking down the gradient with his colleague Saroj.
Along the way, they saw many bodies, some with their clothes stuck to ice. "There was a Chinese girl staying next to us and she was dragged almost 50 metres with her tent. We found her, with her head smashed on a rock. We were lucky that we survived. It was a nightmare," says Sharma. Sharma is from Amritsar and is now the Mehkar ASP.
Apart from Sharma, the team comprised IAS officer Vikram Jindal from Rajasthan, IPS officer Saroj Kumari from Gujarat and Indian Forest Service officer S Prabhakaran from Karnataka. The team was led by IAS officer Ravindra Kumar from the Sikkim cadre.
Indian Mountaineering Federation (IMF) secretary Wing Commander S K Kutty said: "Everyone from the team has been rescued and they have reached Kathmandu last evening." He added that the officers have contacted the Indian embassy in Nepal and have rendered their services for evacuation operations. In case it is not required, they would be flown back in one or two days.
The expedition reached Kathmandu on March 30 and commenced the Everest base camp trekking in the first week of April. They were to attempt the summit around the second half of May 2015.
The expedition was being undertaken to mark the golden jubilee of the first-ever Indian expedition to Mount Everest in 1965. The team was carrying a banner of Swachh Bharat. The expedition was flagged off by PM Narendra Modi in the last week of March.
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