‘Beta, haadsa ho gaya. Mujhe koi mil nahi raha’: Delhi family’s Vaishno Devi trip ends in tragedy as landslide strikes

Three days before the group’s planned return, Yash, Raja’s nephew, received a call on August 26. “Beta, haadsa ho gaya. Mujhe koi mil nahi raha (Son, a disaster has struck… I can’t find anyone),” sobbed Ram Kumari over the call.

The elderly woman was headed to the Ardhkuwari cave temple on a palanquin with her granddaughter Aarohi when others in the family, who were trailing them, were caught in a landslide. “Raja was like the head of our family. He had made all the arrangements for the trip. He didn’t want his elderly mother and his younger daughter to walk on the steep terrain so he arranged a palanquin for them…The people who carry the palanquins walk fast, so they were much ahead of the family,” recalled Yash.

As darkness fell, Ram Kumari was informed of the disaster. Panicked, the old woman and her granddaughter made their way to their hotel. She then pleaded to the hotel’s owner to find Yash’s number on her phone and give him a call.

“Even after getting the call, I had some hope,” he said. Unsure of what to do next, Yash was watching TV news reports of the mishap as he spotted a familiar face. “One reporter managed to take an interview of Suman and Poonam (Pinky’s sisters) in a hospital… With bandages wrapped around her head, she was crying… they couldn’t find other family members anywhere,” said Yash. “I knew then that no one had survived.” But he wanted confirmation.

“The hotel owner told me to come to Katra as soon as possible. He also sent me a list of the people who had died but the names of Raja and Dipanshi weren’t there… The list of unidentified dead bodies was long, which erased my remaining hope,” he added. He left for Katra the next day, drove for 12-13 hours straight before the worst of his fears turned into reality.

Upon reaching SMVD Narayana Superspeciality Hospital in Katra, where the injured were rushed, Yash realised only baby Aayansh had made it to the ICU. He was subsequently redirected to GMC Hospital 35 km away, where all the bodies had been kept.

An odd torturous ordeal awaited him at the second hospital. Yash looked for his uncle Ajay first but since there were several men with the same name on the list, he was instead led to a queue of bodies.

“They would take off the sheet from their face and say, ‘Is this the person you’re looking for?’. When I’d say no, they’d move on to the next body,” said Yash. Pinky and Dipanshi were easier to identify. “Dipanshi’s head had bled a little but I could identify her quickly. Pinky I could recognise from her long hair but Raja mama…,” Yash paused, recalling the scene. “His head was completely crushed…I couldn’t recognise him at all. They showed me his feet and legs…he had always had the thinnest ankles and his toes were odd…they were sort of flat…the moment I saw his toes, I knew it was Raja mama,” said Yash.

A week later, the pall of grief still hung heavy in the Burari house. It is still not clear how many people survived from the group of 16. Baby Aayansh is still in the ICU, but stable. Ram Kumari is so overwhelmed with guilt and grief that she prefers long hours of sleep and sedation over facing reality.

Aarohi is too young to understand what has happened. “Mummy star ban gayi hai (Mom has become a star),” she says, her eyes shining bright. Ajay’s brand new e-rickshaw, bought a month ago on loan, is parked outside the house. The repayments to the loan, starting this month, are only the tip of the iceberg of problems facing them now, says the family.