Rescuers have been scrambling to look for survivors
Credit: Indo Tibetan Border Police via AP
"Everything was swept away, people, cattle and trees," Sangram Singh Rawat, a former village council member of Raini, the site closest to the Rishiganga project, told local media.
It was not immediately clear what caused the glacier burst on a bright Sunday morning. Experts said it had snowed heavily last week in the Nanda Devi area and it was possible that some of the snow started melting and may have led to an avalanche.
Rescue squads were focused on drilling their way through a 2.5 km (1.5 miles) long tunnel at the Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project site that NTPC was building 5 km (3 miles) downstream where about 30 workers were believed trapped.
"We are trying to break open the tunnel, it’s a long one, about 2.5 km," said Ashok Kumar, the state police chief. He said rescuers had gone 150 metres (yards) into the tunnel but debris and slush were slowing progress.
There had been no voice contact yet with anyone in the tunnel, another official said. Heavy equipment has been employed and a dog squad flown to the site to locate survivors.
On Sunday, 12 people were rescued from another much smaller tunnel.
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