Soldier from Naragund among Uttarakhand copter crash victims

A 29-year-old soldier from Jagapura village in the taluk is among those killed in the chopper crash that occurred during operations to rescue those stranded in the Uttarakhand floods.

A pall of gloom has descended on the village, following the death of Basavaraja Tulasappa Yeragatti.

He was serving in the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Yeragatti had joined the ITBP in 2007 and was serving in the eighth battalion of the NDRF in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Efforts are on to trace Yeragatti’s body, Prahlad S K, the deceased soldier’s colleague hailing from Shyagoti in the district told Deccan Herald. He has been assigned the responsibility to bring home the soldier’s body.

Yeragatti’s childhood friend Shivananda Dibbadamani requested mediapersons not to inform Yeragatti’s parents about the tragedy.

However, the soldier’s family got wind of it given the gloomy atmosphere in the village.