Bengaluru man killed in landslide near Vaishno Devi shrine

A 29-year-old city-based electrical engineer was killed in a landslide on the Banganga-Ardhkuwari road while returning to the base camp at Ardhkuwari after visiting Vaishno Devi shrine on August 6. His body is expected to arrive in Bengaluru on Sunday night.

Shashidhar Nagaraj, a resident of Jayanagar 9th Block, along with seven of his friends, had gone on a pilgrimage to Amarnath. But due to the curfew in Srinagar, they changed their plan to a trip to Vaishno Devi temple, Punjab and Rajasthan and other places.

Sanjay, a banker who is part of the group, reached the city on Sunday. He told Deccan Herald, “Eight of us planned a 10-day trip. We initially decided to go to Amarnath and had booked our air tickets to Srinagar. On calling up airport officials in Srinagar, they informed us about the curfew. Since it was risky to travel there late in the night, we changed our plans.”

Flights were again booked for Delhi, from where they proceeded to the Vaishno Devi temple by train.

“On August 4, we reached Delhi and took a train to the shrine. On August 5, we visited the shrine without any hassles. As we were descending, it started raining heavily. Shashidhar and Santosh were a little behind us, while the other six of us walked ahead. The rain got heavier and we decided to go to the base camp, as it was already late night. Shashidhar and Santosh took shelter midway, as they were carrying expensive electronic gadgets, Sanjay said.

Huge boulders along with mud started sliding down and Shashidhar disappeared. “Santosh escaped with minor injuries. On August 6, when Santosh came down, we got to know that Shashidhar had died in the landslide.

The message was sent to his parents and the authorities concerned in Delhi, who made arrangements for the body to be flown back on Sunday. His parents rushed to Jammu on Saturday.” Officials said Shashidhar was the only earning member of the family, while his father retired from KSRTC a month ago.