"Seventeen out of twenty-three on board are dead. Six have been rescued," said Tawang District Commissioner Gamlin Padu.
Among the dead are three crew members.
Two crew members, including the pilot, and four passengers were rescued by the Indian Army. They have been admitted to the civil hospital at Tawang with severe burn injuries. They will be air-lifted to Guwahati on Wednesday.
The Pawan Hans Mi17 helicopter was on way from Guwahati town in Assam to Tawang when it caught fire just minutes before landing at 1.57 pm. It fell into a gorge from a height of 15 metres.
The five crew members have been identified as Captain Varun Gupta, Captain AK Tiwary, Flight Engineer PK Chaturvedi, Assistant Maintenance Engineer SB Kulkarni and Flight attendant A Dikshit.
The 18 civilian passengers included two minors.
Last November, an Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper crashed at Tawang near Indo-China border. All 12 on board were killed.
