Announcing this here, Army and Air Force officials who led the rescue and relief operations in the area said the joint operations carried out by defence forces, Indo-Tibetan border police, the State police and administration, under very trying circumstances could well be taken as an example for successful large-scale disaster management in future.

Air Commodore HPS Sidhu and Col Vikram Singh, who planned and got the operations implemented at the site, explained in detail the situation as it developed from the wee hours of August 18 when rocks, boulders and slush came rumbling down taking away with them the Malpa village and its inhabitants, including several Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrims.

They said at least 200 people would have been buried dead in the debris, but bodies of only about 45 could berecovered.

Elaborating how best man and machine were put to use to meet the massive devastation and trying to save those few who were still alive, they said Cheetah helicopters which could land at a maximum height of 10,000 feet were made to land at about 11,000 feet at another village of Gunji, which lay north of Malpa.

As part of the ``Operation Blue Angels'', braving foul weather 14 IAF choppers, including six MI-17s called from Western Command to Bareilly, carried out about 300 sorties, flew about 79,000 kgs of load and 572 passengers besides rescuing the injured, ferrying the dead and dropping rations and medicines.

Sidhu said it was difficult for the helicopter pilots who had to fly only on one side of the river Kali, dividing India and Nepal, and through the deep gorges. Even at Bareilly, which had an average rainfall of 200 mms in August, the rains last month totalled a whopping 710 mms, he said.