New Delhi: “Feeling peaceful with Manisha Andraskar” was Jayant Andraskar’s last message on his Facebook profile before tragedy struck. He had posted the message on the social networking website around 9 am on Sunday morning, few hours before his death.
The Delhi couple and their two daughters — Anagha and Janhvi — were among seven people who died in Jammu and Kashmir’s Gulmarg when a cable car crashed after a tree fell on the ropeway.
The Andraskars, residents of Shalimar Bagh in northwest Delhi, were in Jammu and Kashmir on a family holiday. The couple had gone to Kashmir on June 22.
One of the girls was a Class 1 student while the other was in playschool, Manisha’s younger brother Sourabh, told a news agency. The couple had gone to Kashmir on June 22, he said. “The last time we talked, they spoke about Kashmir,” he added.
The sudden death of Andraskars has left their families shocked. Sourabh said he had last met his elder sister in May and he was looking forward to a reunion again. Jayant and Manisha along with daughters Jahnvi (7) and Anagha (4) were to reach here on June 28.
The family, originally from Nagpur, moved to Delhi as Jayant was working with a city government department, Sourabh said. The three others who died in the ropeway accident were identified as Kashmir valley residents Mukhtar Ahmad, Jahangir Ahmad and Farooq Ahmad Chopan.
A tree, uprooted by strong wind, fell on the ropeway of the Gulmarg Gondola or cable car and severed the lines, due to which one of the cable cars crashed to the ground, an official said.
This is the first such incident in the history of the 19-year-old Gulmarg Gondola project, the second highest operating cable car in the world.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said the cable car service could have been stopped as a precautionary measure against the strong wind. “What terrible news,” he tweeted.
“It begs the question as to why the cable car operations weren’t suspended in high winds. That’s a laid down SOP [standard operating procedure].”
