Five days after a Pawan Hans helicopter carrying him and four others went missing soon after taking off from Tawang,the bodies of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu and four others,three of them charred beyond recognition,were found along with the debris of the helicopter at a spot northeast of Sela. It was a group of villagers from Luguthang which first spotted the wreckage and the bodies,following which Thupten,a local anchalik samiti (zonal committee) member,trekked down to the spot and identified one of the bodies as that of Khandu. It requires some formalities to officially declare his death,but the local anchalik samiti member and a family member have both identified one of the bodies to be that of Khandus, Union Minister for Northeast Development B K Handique said at Itanagar. Handique said though the spot was aerially not very far from Tawang,it takes about six hours to drive down a rugged mountain road and a couple of hours of trekking on foot. The bigger Mi-17 helicopter cannot approach the spot which is located deep between two ranges of mountains. The Army is using the smaller Cheetah or Chetak chopper to retrieve the bodies one by one. But that too is not likely today, Handique said. He added that the body of the Chief Minister would be taken to Itanagar tomorrow,for which the family has given consent. Union Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in Delhi that some villagers had reached the site of the crash of the helicopter and communicated to the control room in Itanagar that they had identified two bodies. From whatever I can piece together from the information given by the villagers,and assuming it to be true,I am afraid the news is grim and sad. These are interrupted communications by villagers who have reached the site. But no official of the government,Army or police has been able to reach there. It may take several hours for any of these officials to reach the spot because it is about five kilometres from Kyela, Chidambaram said. The wreakage of the chopper was found at a spot about 10 km from Luguthang,about 15 km northeast of Jang on the Tawang-Bomdila road,in a small valley north of the trecherous Sela Range in the eastern Himalayas. Apart from the Chief Minister,the other persons on board the ill-fated helicopter were Captain J S Babbar,Captain K S Malick,Khandus security officer Yeshi Choddak and Yeshi Lamu,a sister of Tawang legislator Tsewang Dhondup. Chidambaram said a Cheetah helicopter,which flew over the site,had also been able to locate the debris of a crashed helicopter and some bodies lying there. Incidentally,while aerial survey and satellite imagery data,including that provided by Indian Space Research Organisaton,failed to pinpoint the exact location of the crash,it was a team of local people that finally located the wreckage. Earlier in the day,senior Home Ministry officials said based on inputs received from the ISRO satellite and the Sukhoi-30 aircraft,as well as information provided by some local people,search operations were focused on the areas around Nagar GG,area to the immediate south of Sela Pass known as Eagles Nest Reserve Forest and Phangrong in Bhutan.
