2 die, 10 missing as Chardham bus falls into Alaknanda river in Rudraprayag

Two pilgrims died, eight were seriously injured, and ten were missing after a bus going towards Badrinath Shrine fell into a 300-metre-deep gorge in Rudraprayag on Thursday morning.

Rescuers have recovered two bodies while the search for the missing persons was going on.

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Tragedy occurred near the State Bank turn, at Gholtir area in Rudraprayag, when a 31-seater Char Dham pilgrimage bus went out of control and plunged into the Alaknanda River, nearly 300 metres down the road.

The bus going from Rudraprayag to Badrinath was carrying passengers from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Uttarakhand, while the bus driver, Sumit Kumar, hailed from Haridwar. As many as 20 passengers were seated in the bus when the ill-fated vehicle met with the tragedy.

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) officials informed that some passengers were thrown out of the bus as it skidded into the gorge before going into the river. They were rescued from the gorge by SDRF, NDRF, local public and police, and revenue department teams.

As many as eight injured passengers were rescued and sent to the Rudraprayag district hospital for medical aid. Some of the critically injured pilgrims were airlifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), Rishikesh.

The SDRF and other search and rescue teams at the accident site recovered two bodies. The deceased have been identified as 42-year-old Vishal Soni from Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh and 17-year-old Dirmi from Surat in Gujarat.

Among injured pilgrims were Deepika Soni, 42, Hemlata Soni, 45, both from Rajasthan, Ishwar Soni, 46, Bhavna Soni, 43, and 7-year-old Bhavya Soni, all three from Surat in Gujarat. Apart from them, 10-year-old Parth Soni, from Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, bus driver Sumit Kumar, 23, from Bairagi Camp in Haridwar, and Amita Soni, 49, resident of Mira Road, Maharashtra, were also sent to the hospital for treatment.

Passengers stated to be missing were Ravi Bhavsar, 28; Lalit Kumar Soni, 48; Sanjay Soni,55; Chetna Soni, 52; and 77-year-old Sushila Soni — all residents of Udaipur, Rajasthan. Mauli Soni, 19; Mayuri, 24; and 12-year-old Cheshta all residents of Surat; Gujarat, Gauri Soni, 41; from Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Katta Ranjana Ashok,59; from Mira Road, Maharashtra were also missing as informed by the SDRF.

The rescue and search operation was going on at the time of filing the story.

SDRF claimed that the rescue operation was challenging due to the strong river current, harsh terrain, bad weather, and deep gorge.