A city in mourning: Picnic turns into tragedy

Hyderabad: What was supposed to be a dream vacation for students from the Hyderabad's VNR Vignana Jyothi engineering college, has now turned into a nightmare. It has been revealed that the tragedy on Sunday, in the waters of the Beas river, in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district, unfolded in seconds.  “We were all on a rock taking photos and when the floodgates opened, that rock was submerged within seconds. We had absolutely no idea what hit us. A friend and I managed to pull ourselves out but our efforts to pull out our friends failed,” reveals Suharsha, who survived the deadly deluge.

Suharsha, on Monday afternoon, was at the Kulu airport along with 23 other students and a faculty member, returning to the city via Chandigarh. Around 60 students and faculty members were on the ill-fated trip to Shimla. The mishap took place when a few from the group, hoping to be photographed on the banks of the river Beas in the Thalaut area got on to the rock. The water levels rose suddenly, due to the opening of floodgates at a nearby hydropower project, and the students, all smiles for the perfect shot, simply... vanished.

Back home, the close-knit community of students and alumni is holding on to photographs from the trip, some as recent as Saturday. Shruti, a fourth-year student, was in touch with close friend Vijetha Akula. “She sent me a photo of herself and she wanted me to check out her new outfit and give my opinion. I will never, ever forget that photo,” she reveals.

Shruthi is also furious. “People need to be informed about the timings. I heard that the dam opens around the same time every day, but tourists won’t know that, right?” Others are raging against the “sheer negligence” of Himachal Pradesh government. “There is a sense of helplessness as we sit here and watch the news. A signboard wouldn’t cost much. But the cost now is heavy; 24 lives lost is not a joke,” says Samriddha Ghosh, an alumnus. “And apparently, that siren wasn’t audible,” adds another alumni member, Ranjith Kumar.

Friends and alumni are now gathering for tributes and candle-light vigils. A college senior, Anuraag, who knew “all of them personally” is making sure the incident is never forgotten. “Every one of those 24 kids was a friend. Some of us are just too shocked... and almost everyone I know is now in mourning.”