3 min readPuneJun 16, 2024 10:43 PM IST
First published on: Jun 16, 2024 at 09:28 PM IST
SIXTY-two-year-old Sunanda Jadhav, a resident of Kasarwadi in Pimpri-Chinchwad, died of a heat stroke on Thursday while on pilgrimage to North India. She was part of a group of over 200 people from Khed taluka who had gone to North India for the pilgrimage.
”My mother was found dead in their bus while going from Kashi to Gaya in Bihar. My father and a couple of relatives were with her at that moment,” Suhas Jadhav, her son, told The Indian Express.
Suhas said the tourist party had for six days visited various places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar including the Ram temple in Ayodhya. ”They were on their last trip to Gaya. My mother was found motionless in the bus by my father. She was then taken to a nearby hospital where the doctor suspected that she died of heat stroke…My mother was not suffering from any ailment,” he said.
Ganesh Sambherao, a family friend, said,”People who were part of the group said the temperature in Bihar was as high as 45 degree Celsius. The pilgrims probably were already exhausted and the heat made matters worse for them,” he said.
Sambherao said that Jadhav died on Thursday evening. ”I and my friends including Suhas, Sanjay Tope and Tushar Mane’s families were heading to Gujarat for a four-day tour by train. Just when the train was about to move, we got a call from Suhas’s father…We immediately got down from the train at Pune station,” he said. Local residents consoled Suhas as he waited for the body of his mother for more than 24 hours.
Sambherao said the body was brought to Pune by an ambulance on Friday evening. ”The body arrived late in the evening on Friday. It was taken to Jadhav’s native place in Khed taluka where the last rites were performed,” he said.
Sambherao said Jadhav lived with her family in Kasarwadi area. ”She was popular in the neighbourhood and frequently interacted with everyone. She took an active part in the cultural activities of the neighbourhood,” he said.
Santosh Maharaj, who accompanied the touring party on behalf of the tour operator, said,”Just five minutes before the woman was found motionless, she was eating fruits which we had provided. One hour before that we had lunch and she looked alright. After that we travelled for one hour and stopped over to drink water at a hotel. It was then her family found her to be motionless. She was taken to three hospitals where the doctors said she had died. They cited heart attack as the reason.”
Sunanda Jadhav 
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