Mountaineers' bodies to be brought back

Kolkata: The bodies of mountaineers Kuntal Karar and Biplab Baidya are expected to be brought to the base camp within a few days with the Sherpa team that had gone for the rescue operation after their bodies have been located. Both of them in an expedition to Kanchenjunga were feared dead since Thursday.

"We have been able to locate the bodies of Kuntal and Biplab. We are taking all possible steps to bring down the bodies. It is a tough task

but the Sherpas are trying their best. We are hopeful that we will be able to do it in a few days," said Ujjal Ray, a member of the advisory committee of the state Youth Affairs department.

On the other hand, the efforts to trace Dipankar Ghosh, another Bengal

mountaineer who went missing while he was coming down after scaling Mount Makalu in Nepal on Friday, has been suspended at least till May 22 with forecast of inclement weather conditions.

"We have to first locate the body and then plan accordingly on how to bring it down," said an official of the Seven Summits agency which was overseeing Dipankar's expedition.

He had successfully scaled the fifth highest peak in the world but while descending to the base camp went missing.

A two-member team comprising an official from the state Youth Affairs department and mountaineer Debdas Adhikary has already reached Kathmandu and is supervising the search operation of Kuntal, Biplab as well as Dipankar.

Mt. Makalu is considered amongst the most dangerous and challenging peaks to summit.

Ramesh Ray and Rudraprasad Halder who fell sick during the Kanchenjunga expedition were airlifted and brought to the base camp on Thursday afternoon are presently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Nepal. Both of them are recovering.