- Brigham Young University nursing professors and students since 2021 have been working to improve mountain rescue operations in India.
- They launched the Mountain People Project, establishing a helicopter airlift program in 2024.
- The project trained 1,000 individuals in wilderness skills, enhancing Indian-led rescues.
PROVO — Every year, millions of Hindu pilgrims embark on the Char Dham Yatra, a sacred pilgrimage through the Himalayas to visit ancient temple sites known as the "four abodes of God."
And every year, thousands die along the dangerous route that spans about 1,000 kilometers and takes weeks or even months to complete.
"These aren't just the young people going on pilgrimages, you've got grandmas and grandpas who have heart problems," said Amanda Ball, a graduate student in Brigham Young University's family nurse practitioner program.
The natural risks associated with a journey of such magnitude — trauma, hypothermia and altitude sickness, just to name a few — are compounded by a lack of infrastructure and medical care in India's remote, high-altitude region.
"One of the main issues is there was no quick way to evacuate anyone to a hospital that could actually care for them. There were no search and rescue teams that had medical skills," said Craig Nuttall, a BYU nursing professor.
Nuttall — who has a background in search and rescue and wilderness medicine — in 2021 launched Mountain People Project, which, as part of its broader mission, brings BYU nursing professors and students to India to help transform mountain rescue operations in the region.
Then, in 2024, the project established the region's first medically trained helicopter airlift program to evacuate people to the area's main trauma center, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Rishikesh.
Additionally, professors and students have trained around 1,000 mountaineers, state police officers, doctors and nurses in wilderness first-responder skills.
This training is empowering an unprecedented number of Indian-led rescues.
In the last year, Nuttall said the newly trained helicopter team saved over 100 patients, and the state disaster response force responded to over 100 monsoon mudslides.
"I know that their skills have been put to good use," Nuttall said.
As far as the project's next steps, Nuttall said the aim is to "pinpoint" where emergency medical services are most needed along the route.
"We really want to educate people so they have the skills to help themselves and help others around them," Nuttall said. "That's how we are having the biggest impact."
In addition to initiatives in the Indian Himalayas, Mountain People Project is facilitating service in Georgia and the Beehive State's own Wasatch Mountains, with upcoming initiatives planned for South America and Europe, BYU said in a release.
More information on the university's work in the Himalayas can be found here.
