In a heartbreaking incident in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, a 25-year-old Army soldier, Sunil Rawat, tragically lost his life while attempting to save a friend from drowning in the Nandakini river. The fatal incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon while Rawat was on leave for a religious event. A native of Nandanagar and a member of the Garhwal Rifles regiment, Rawat had joined three local friends for a bathing excursion at the confluence of the Punera rivulet and the Nandakini river around 2 PM.
According to Nandanagar Station House Officer Narendra Rawat, the situation escalated when one of the friends slipped and was rapidly pulled into deeper waters. In a heroic effort to rescue his friend, Sunil Rawat jumped into the river but was quickly caught in a treacherous whirlpool. Despite the desperate attempts of his friends to assist him, the dangerous terrain, characterized by large submerged boulders, complicated the rescue efforts. Ultimately, Rawat was swept away.
Rescue teams later recovered his body, which had become lodged between rocks under the water, and it was subsequently transported to a nearby hospital for a postmortem examination.
Tragedy struck again in Chamoli on the same day, as two factory workers from Haryana, identified as Sachin Kumar (30) and Ravi Kumar (26) from Yamunanagar, lost their lives when their motorcycle was struck by a landslide while returning from Badrinath.
In another incident, unrelated yet equally distressing, seven individuals were injured on Thursday in a head-on collision between a Haryana-registered camping van and a UP-registered car on the Rishikesh-Gangotri highway near the Sarot temple. The occupants of the car—four from Muzaffarnagar and three from Noida—were on their way to Gangotri. Reports indicate that three of the injured are in serious condition.
These series of events underscore the inherent dangers associated with both natural and road-related emergencies during the peak pilgrimage and travel season in Uttarakhand, highlighting the need for heightened awareness and safety measures.
