Risks of Reindeer Husbandry Highlighted
A recent story from the ITAR-TASS newswire reminds one of the everyday dangers that reindeer herders face in Russia, and of course elsewhere, travelling as they do in remote and hazardous regions throughout the Arctic.
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, April 14 (Itar-Tass) - The body of one of five missing reindeer herders was found under snow debris in Kolyma’s Severo-Evensk district. The Ural truck that was carrying five reindeer herders that went missing in February was found under a five-meter layer of pressed snow on April 8. The first body was found under the truck. A tractor, a bulldozer and 15 rescuers keep clearing the snow debris to find the remaining four bodies.
The missing reindeer herders on February 25 set out in the Ural truck from their brigade’s camp along the 200-kilometre road to the Evensk settlement but never reached the destination. The reindeer herders had no communication equipment when they departed.
Specialists of the Far Eastern regional centre of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry voiced supposition that the truck with people could have been buried under snow avalanches when the vehicle was passing a 30-kilometre gorge in upper reaches of the Bolshaya Garmanda River. About 20 avalanches came down in the gorge at the time.
The search for five reindeer herders that went missing in the Severo-Evensk district started on March 7. Rescuers cleared 15 avalanches where the snow layer was five to 15 metres deep. Rescuers used probes and a mine detector set to check all places where avalanches came down. The gorge is very narrow and its width in the lower part is just 20 metres. Helicopters also examined other places where the Ural truck with reindeer herders could have driven theoretically. The 200-kilometre road from the herders’ camp to Evensk runs only through the Bolshaya Garmanda River’s gorge, so the search for the missing people was underway there. The places covered by avalanche snow were being cleared to the ground by a bulldozer.
The truck was found not in the gorge, but six to seven kilometres away from the entrance to the gorge. The avalanche overturned the truck sideways and buried it under a five-meter layer of snow.
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