Snow traps Hyderabad trekking group

Hyderabad: The heavy snowfall in Leh, Jammu & Kashmir has stranded around 400 people in Leh, including a group of trekkers from Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai.

The city group had left Hyderabad on January 20 for the Chadar Frozen River Trek but have been struggling to return as flights have been delayed or cancelled due to the bad weather. The group claimed that Air India were not responding to repeated requests but a statement from the airline — late on Thursday — said they had rescued 90 per cent of passengers from Leh by operating two extra aircraft today.

Only passengers from Jammu are left at the Leh airport and they will be rescued by Thursday, the statement said.

Kiran Dembla, a celebrity fitness trainer from Hyderabad, who was stuck at Leh airport after a nine-day trek, was lucky enough to return safely on January 30. But Israel Vineeth and Anshu Kumar from Hyderabad are still stuck in Leh.

“Our tickets were booked for January 29 but our flight was cancelled. When we approached Air-India for help, their response was ‘go to hell’. Some of us were lucky enough to return but many are still stuck at Leh airport and have no proper accommodation.” One of those stranded is 26-year-old J. Arvindhan, from Chennai, who said he was running out of cash and food.