Bholum Hill lies to the southeast of Chhangru in Byas Rural Municipality-1, Darchula. Bholum Hill was visible on Tuesday. It was raining lightly.
At the foot of the hill were a bunch of yarsa collectors. Seven people were staying under a tent. Four other people who went to pick Yarsa with them had gone to collect firewood.
Around 14 people who reached on Tuesday were sitting in a cave nearby. There were no big avalanches in April-May. The snow would have melted. So they climbed Bholum Hill to collect Yarsa.
On Tuesday afternoon, there occurred an avalanche, all of a sudden.
Five people who were sitting under a tent were crushed by the avalanche. Number 50 Company of Armed Police Force is five hours' walk from Bholum Danda. Yarsa collectors who were taking shelter in the cave informed the locals about the avalanche via telephone.
Around 2:45 pm, the locals informed the APF based at Gangabagar. A 21-member team led by DSP Ishwar Dutta Bhatta went to the incident site after receiving the news of the avalanche.
Later there was also a five-member team led by Assistant Sub Inspector Prakash Bahadur Singh from Sitapul Police Post.
The security personnel risked their lives and carried out a three-day 'rescue operation'. They continued searching in the biting cold.
The security personnel carried ropes, locking carabiners (lockers), ice axes, shovels, and other materials for rescue and went uphill through Gangabagar.
"The oxygen level was getting very low, so we walked for three hours to reach the accident site," a rescue worker told Nepalkhabar, "The avalanche slid down from two hundred meters above."
According to him, the avalanche reached around five kilometers down to the Nampa River. The rescue team, which arrived late, searched the place where the tent had taken put up. A bag was found but their search failed as it was snowing continuously. It was biting cold. The Himalayan jackets, gloves, and boots of the security personnel were completely soaked with the snow.
"We couldn't search for the missing at night. We rescued 20 people who escaped death by fleeing to the cave," said the security personnel, "we reached Ganga camp at 9:30 pm."
It was very dark when they returned. More than five feet of snow had accumulated. The snowfall had not subsided.
"I went down slowly with a slight bump in the snow. Boots, gloves, and jacket were completely wet," said the security personnel on the first day of the rescue, 'After reaching the camp at night, we dried them all by heating them on fire."
The next day they were joined by some locals. They were also in the search along with the security personnel.
They started searching from Nampa River where the landslide had reached. After about three hours, they found three dead bodies stuck in the mountain.
"It took us three to four hours to retrieve the dead bodies with the help of a rope," he said.
Nikni Dolma Thapa of Jorayal Rural Municipality-2 Budar of Doti, Kamala Kunwar of Dunhu Rural Municipality-4, Dhari of Darchula and her 18-year-old son Prabin were found by the security personnel.
The dead bodies were brought to the headquarters Khalanga on Thursday via Indian roads.
The condition of 28-year-old Ishwari Thapa and 15-year-old Kshimi Somo Thapa of Zorayal Rural Municipality-2 Budar in Doti is still unknown. A joint team of armed police and district police searched for them on Thursday as well.
But they haven't been found yet. A team led by ASI Keshav Dutta Joshi of the Armed Police from Ganga searched for them throughout the day, but in vain, on Thursday.
"Continuous snowfall hit the search operation. We looked everywhere but they were not found," said the security personnel. The security personnel have now stopped the search and descended.
