CHANDIGARH: After an overnight operation, ten people, including five employees of the state forest department who were stuck at the Kol Dam Hydel Project in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi after the sudden rise in water levels amid incessant rainfall last evening have been rescued.
The five forest department employees along with a few locals had gone to take stock of the situation as a large number of logs had floated into the reservoir following heavy rains in the past few days. Their boat got trapped due to heavy silt and logs inside the water body near Tattapani some 20 km away.
14 battalions of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) left on a steamer boat of the dam authority around 11:30 pm. Then an NDRF swimmer swam towards the boat and anchored it.
Their rescue operation was completed around 2:30 am. “With night operations always being tough, it was a challenging task. Besides jumping into the dam at night is a risky affair. However, the NDRF team showed bravery to save them,’’ said an official.