By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Twenty-seven more stranded trekkers were airlifted as part of a multi-agency rescue operation on Tuesday from different locations in the snow-bound Himalayan areas in Uttarakhand.
Most of the areas traversed by the trekkers were covered with 4–5 feet of snow, rescuers and trekkers said.
In the first phase in the morning, eight trekkers were rescued from Kalindi Trek in Uttarkashi district by helicopters. With this, all the 19 trekkers from Kalindi have been airlifted, a top SDRF official said. On Monday morning, another 11 trekkers were airlifted from Kalindi.
In the second phase also in morning, eight trekkers were airlifted from Mt Jogin-I.
From Vasuki Tal, 11 trekkers were airlifted. SDRF Commandant Arpan Yaduvanshi said acting swiftly despite the challenging geographical conditions, rescuers safely evacuated all 11 trekkers from Vasuki Tal and brought them to the Harsil helipad. All the trekkers underwent medical examination at the helipad and were found to be in good health, he said.
“As the weather was clear on Monday and our helicopters remained busy to airlift trekkers,” said Yaduvanshi. The rescue operation on the Vasuki Tal trek has now been completed, he said.
However, a top government official said 60 trekkers wanted to continue their expeditions and have refused to be airlifted. It was not clear how many of trekkers were still stranded.
A total of 67 trekkers have been airlifted so far since Monday morning. A government statement on Monday had stated that a total of 179 trekkers were stranded in high altitudes of Uttarkashi (136) and Bageshwar (43) districts.
Most of these trekkers were stranded after two days of heavy snowfall in the higher reaches of Uttarakhand on Sept 26-27 that had worsened the weather conditions.
