<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><p>A total of 30 bodies have been retrieved from a gorge in Ambenali Ghat in Poladpur in Raigad district of Maharashtra.</p><p>The search and rescue operations were called off on Sunday evening after all the bodies were accounted for.</p><p>Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended on the campus of the Dr Balasaheb Sawant Agriculture University at Dapoli in the neighboring Ratnagiri district as bodies were being brought. </p><p>The employees — mainly clerical staff — of the university were going for their annual weekend picnic in the hill station of Mahabaleshwar in Satara district.</p><p>Among the 30 who died include 29 staffers of the university and the driver of the ill-fated bus, the Raigad police on Sunday said after the nearly 36 hours operations concluded. </p><p>On Saturday, reports have said that 33 people died in the accident.</p><p>One employee, Prakash Sawant-Desai (55), miraculously escaped as because of the impact he was thrown out of the bus when it was crashing and held onto the ground.</p><p>Another employee, Pravin Randive, skipped the trip at the last moment because of ill health.</p><p>“All the bodies have been handed over to the families after completion of formalities,” officials of the Raigad police said.</p><p>“The Poladpur police station has registered a case and investigations were in progress,” said Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar.</p><p>According to Sawant-Desai, the lone survivor, the bus skidded when the tyre went over loose mud at the edge of the road.</p><p>The accident site is nearly 180 kms off downtown Mumbai.</p><p>The bus has crashed into a 600-foot-deep valley and the rescue operations included teams from the Raigad police and disaster management units, a team of National Disaster Response Force from Pune and several teams of trekkers from Raigad, Satara and Kolhapur districts.</p></div></div>
<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><p>A total of 30 bodies have been retrieved from a gorge in Ambenali Ghat in Poladpur in Raigad district of Maharashtra.</p><p>The search and rescue operations were called off on Sunday evening after all the bodies were accounted for.</p><p>Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended on the campus of the Dr Balasaheb Sawant Agriculture University at Dapoli in the neighboring Ratnagiri district as bodies were being brought. </p><p>The employees — mainly clerical staff — of the university were going for their annual weekend picnic in the hill station of Mahabaleshwar in Satara district.</p><p>Among the 30 who died include 29 staffers of the university and the driver of the ill-fated bus, the Raigad police on Sunday said after the nearly 36 hours operations concluded. </p><p>On Saturday, reports have said that 33 people died in the accident.</p><p>One employee, Prakash Sawant-Desai (55), miraculously escaped as because of the impact he was thrown out of the bus when it was crashing and held onto the ground.</p><p>Another employee, Pravin Randive, skipped the trip at the last moment because of ill health.</p><p>“All the bodies have been handed over to the families after completion of formalities,” officials of the Raigad police said.</p><p>“The Poladpur police station has registered a case and investigations were in progress,” said Raigad Superintendent of Police Anil Paraskar.</p><p>According to Sawant-Desai, the lone survivor, the bus skidded when the tyre went over loose mud at the edge of the road.</p><p>The accident site is nearly 180 kms off downtown Mumbai.</p><p>The bus has crashed into a 600-foot-deep valley and the rescue operations included teams from the Raigad police and disaster management units, a team of National Disaster Response Force from Pune and several teams of trekkers from Raigad, Satara and Kolhapur districts.</p></div></div>