1 day ago
1
Operations were underway connected Sunday (May 31, 2026) to propulsion retired the bodies of 7 tourists and a taxi driver, who were killed aft their car fell into a gorge successful Chamba territory of Himachal Pradesh, officials said.
The incidental occurred precocious connected Friday (May 29, 2026) nighttime connected the Bairgarh-Sach Pass-Killar roadworthy successful Churah subdivision, but locals came to cognize astir it connected Saturday (May 30, 2026) afternoon.
The mishap occurred erstwhile the car was going towards the snow-bound Sach Pass, 1 of the toughest stretches successful Himachal Pradesh, the officials said.
BJP MLA from Churah, Hans Raj, told PTI that a cognition was underway, but owed to the steep slope and atrocious upwind conditions, the bodies could not beryllium retrieved.
The country is remote, topography is pugnacious and determination is nary telephone awesome successful the area, helium added.
The cognition resumed connected Sunday (May 31, 2026) greeting and the locals on with constabulary formed quality chains on with ropes to get down to the mishap spot, officials said.
According to preliminary information, 2 families had met successful Dalhousie and decided to bask the snowfall successful the Sach Pass portion successful a shared taxi.
Both families, accompanied by the taxi driver, departed connected Friday (May 29, 2026) for the Bairagarh-Killar way via Sach Pass and erstwhile the taxi did not instrumentality to Dalhousie adjacent aft the scheduled time, the conveyance proprietor checked the vehicle's GPS location. According to the GPS data, the conveyance appeared to beryllium stationary astatine a azygous spot adjacent the Kalavan area, showing perfectly nary signs of movement.
Following this, a section hunt cognition was initiated, which raised the apprehension that the conveyance had met with an accident.
The deceased person been identified arsenic Arvind Chandrakar his woman Prachi, sons Darsh and Akshad, each residents of Bengaluru, P.G. Karthikeyan, his woman Manimala and lad Nandan, each residents of Karnataka and the taxi operator Vishwas, a nonmigratory of Banikhet from Chamba successful Himachal.
