Bus carrying pilgrims falls into gorge in Uttarakhand while reversing, 5 dead

Five have been declared dead, and of the injured, five have been referred to All India Institute for Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, for further treatment.

The bus had left from Rishikesh’s Sadanand Ashram for Maa Kunjapuri Temple, and on its return, it met with an accident while reversing. Police said the number of passengers present in the bus at the time of the accident is yet to be ascertained, as a few were waiting for another vehicle outside. The station house officer of Narendranagar police station said that at least 18 people were inside the bus.

The State Disaster Response Force rescued the passengers from inside the bus.

The deceased have been identified as Anita Chauhan, from Dwarka in Delhi; Parthsathi Madhusudan Joshi from Gujarat’s Vadodara; and Namita Prabhukal, Anuj Venkatraman and Ashu Tyagi of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The injured are from different states, including Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

The SDRF said that the District Control Room in Tehri informed the Battalion Control Room that a bus had fallen 70 metres into a deep gorge near Kunjapuri–Hindolakhal near Narendra Nagar. The force said around 29 passengers were on board the bus. Five SDRF teams from Post Dhalwala, Post Koti Colony, and SDRF Battalion Headquarters were immediately dispatched to the incident site.

The bus, registered in 2013, has a pending challan for traffic violation from 2022, as per data in the Parivahan portal.

Kunjapuri is a peak situated at an altitude of 1,676 m above sea level, where the temple is located.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami described the news of the bus accident as “extremely saddening”.

“The injured are being taken to the nearest hospitals by the district administration and SDRF, and those who are critically injured have been referred to AIIMS Rishikesh. I am in constant touch with the local authorities regarding the situation. I pray for the swift recovery of all the injured,” he said.