Chamba accident: Operation under way to retrieve bodies from gorge

Operations were underway on Sunday (May 31, 2026) to pull out the bodies of seven tourists and a taxi driver, who were killed after their car fell into a gorge in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, officials said.The incident occurred late on Friday (May 29, 2026) night on the Bairgarh-Sach Pass-Killar road in Churah subdivision, but locals came to know about it on Saturday (May 30, 2026) afternoon.The accident occurred when the car was going towards the snow-bound Sach Pass, one of the toughest stretches in Himachal Pradesh, the officials said.BJP MLA from Churah, Hans Raj, told PTI that a operation was underway, but due to the steep slope and bad weather conditions, the bodies could not be retrieved.The area is remote, topography is tough and there is no phone signal in the area, he added.The operation resumed on Sunday (May 31, 2026) morning and the locals along with police formed human chains along with ropes to get down to the accident spot, officials said.According to preliminary information, two families had met in Dalhousie and decided to enjoy the snow in the Sach Pass region in a shared taxi.Both families, accompanied by the taxi driver, departed on Friday (May 29, 2026) for the Bairagarh-Killar route via Sach Pass and when the taxi did not return to Dalhousie even after the scheduled time, the vehicle owner checked the vehicle's GPS location. According to the GPS data, the vehicle appeared to be stationary at a single spot near the Kalavan area, showing absolutely no signs of movement.Following this, a local search operation was initiated, which raised the apprehension that the vehicle had met with an accident.The deceased have been identified as Arvind Chandrakar his wife Prachi, sons Darsh and Akshad, all residents of Bengaluru, P.G. Karthikeyan, his wife Manimala and son Nandan, all residents of Karnataka and the taxi driver Vishwas, a resident of Banikhet from Chamba in Himachal. Published - May 31, 2026 12:52 pm IST