As many as 30 bodies have been recovered today, 20 were those of laborers and 10 of yatris. Three yatris were identified by the relatives. They are: Malabi Ray from Calcutta, Parvin Ben from Gujarat and Kamal Prasad Upadhayaya from Maharashtra.

In Pithoragarh, the grieving relatives waited for nearly 24 hours for the permit to arrive. ``We were told it was a border area and for security reasons we were required to possess one,''said Samir Mehra, who had come from Delhi to identify the body of his uncle.

Confusion reigned supreme as reports of Protima Bedi's body being found was released yesterday by Gautam Kaul Director General, Indo-Tibetan Border Police. This afternoon, the district authorities and Army sourcesdenied the report and said and clarified that only a pouch containing her passport were found near a female body.

They are, however, not saying that it is Protima Bedi's body. The body is badly decomposed and is not possible to distinguish unless identified by close family members. The suspected body will be flown to Delhi on Monday.

Protima Bedi's sister Ashita Dham and Lynne Fernandes who is in charge of Nrityagram near Bangalore were skeptical about it. ``How can one body found amongst the 200 be that of Protima's, it is too much of a coincidence,'' said Fernandes.

However, they were hoping that the news wouldn't be true. The family thought that it was a cruel joke that is being played on them. ``How can anybody identify her, who has not known her closely, are they authorised to release such information?'' said Fernandes.

This was not the only complaint that the relatives had regarding the way the rescue operation was being carried out.

``If only the administration had acted instead of blamingthe weather there would have been chance of finding some survivors,'' said Manish Mehta from Pune, whose two family members and four acquaintances were on the trip.

``During war time can the Army say that the helicopter cannot land due to bad weather? '' he said. ``How can the authorities say that all yatris are dead, all over the world there have been instances when survivors have been found after six days,'' said another relative. Some were angry at being detained at Bareilly for three days and then being rudely sent to Pithoragarh.

The entire group was totally at a loss regarding the correct picture of the situation. They struggled to tally the contradictory figures of bodies being transported to Dharchula. The number ranged from 9 to 41. ``Who do we believe, the buck is being passed from the Centre to the State and the local authorities.''

``We don't want anybody to come and check if we have a bulb in the bathroom or if the mattress was fine, we want to be taken to Dharchula at least,'' said R Shahfrom Pune.

Many of the relatives were fearing that the authorities would make them sign a letter of consent for allowing mass cremation instead of taking the responsibility of bringing the bodies back.

Some of them pointed a finger of suspicion at the lack of transparency in the whole gamut of rescue operations. They say that each yatri was carrying at least $ 700. ``My sister and brother-in-law were carrying nearly Rs 1 lakh in cash,'' said Y. Balamundu from Andhra Pradesh.

So tired were the relatives of waiting that the relatives were even thinking of hiring a civil helicopter, they said as they waited for over four hours for the driver to fill diesel in the bus which was to carry them to Dharchula.

Tears have given way to anger as they are left with unanswered queries, some left in a huff in private taxis after hearing that `Permit' was a hoax, the others followed.

Today the rescue operation were completely taken over by the Army and the district administration was involved in handing over thebodies to the relatives and preparing for their last rites.