The toll in Uttarakhand glacier burst disaster rose to 37 on Friday as rescue operations entered its sixth day, Chamoli District Magistrate Swati Bhadoriya told ANI. The latest body was recovered from the riverbank near Maithana village.

Meanwhile, two people were found alive. More than 200 people were still missing since the flash floods struck last Sunday, according to NDTV.

The rescue operation was stopped briefly on Thursday when water level in Dhauliganga river nearby began to rise again. The rescue operation teams are now looking to set up a “life-saving system”, possibly to pump oxygen into the blocked tunnel near Tapovan dam in Chamoli, PTI reported. Several people are feared to be stuck inside the tunnel.

Till Wednesday, about 120 metres of sludge from the mouth of the tunnel was cleared, while the trapped workers were stated to be located somewhere at 180 metres, where the tunnel takes a turn.

“But there is hope against hope that they are surviving somehow as the temperature inside the tunnel is about 20-25 degrees Celsius and some oxygen is possibly available to them,” Garhwal Commissioner Ravinath Raman told PTI.

Besides, the rescuers are now also drilling through the hardened debris in the tunnel, rather than just shifting mounds of silt and sludge deposited there. “A drilling operation was started by the rescue teams at 2 am to peep into the slush-flushing tunnel that is about 12-13 metres below,” Vivek Kumar Pandey, a spokesperson of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, said.

Apart from the ITBP, the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and the Army are also part of the multi-agency rescue effort. “Our teams are continuously searching for bodies,” PK Tiwary, NDRF Commandant, at Tapovan tunnel, told ANI on Friday morning. “ A team has also been deployed to search for bodies along the river.”

The glacier break in Chamoli district on Sunday had triggered an avalanche and massive flooding. The flood washed away two power plants and and five bridges.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Tuesday informed the Parliament that the Centre was closely monitoring the massive rescue operation in Uttarakhand. “450 jawans of ITBP [Indo-Tibetan Border Police], 5 teams of NDRF [National Disaster Response Force], 8 teams of Indian Army, a Navy team and 5 Indian Air Force helicopters are engaged in search and rescue operation,” he had said.