Gulmarg Gondola accident: Tragedy hits Delhi family of four holidaying in Kashmir

A couple and their two daughters died when the gondola cable car they travelling was violently flung around after the wire sagged under the weight of a fallen tree.

“Feeling peaceful” with Manisha Andraskar, was the last message that friends of Jayant Andraskar saw on his Facebook page before tragedy struck.

Operators check a cable car of the Gulmarg Gondola. (Waseem Andrabi/HT Photo)

The Delhi couple and their two young daughters – Anagha and Janhvi – were among seven who met a tragic death in Kashmir’s Gulmarg when a cable car was violently flung after the ropeway sagged under the weight of a fallen tree.

The Andraskars, residents of Shalimar Bagh in north west Delhi, had gone to Kashmir for holidaying.

One of their daughters was a class I student while the other was in playschool, according to one of their relatives, Sourabh. The couple had gone to Kashmir on June 22, he said.

“The last time we talked, they spoke about Kashmir,” said Sourabh.

The family hailed from Nagpur but had come to Delhi as Jayant was working in a Delhi government department, he said.

Apart from the Andraskars, three persons from Kashmir – Mukhtar Ahmad, a resident of Chonti Patri Babareshi, and Jahangir Ahmad and Farooq Ahmad Chopan, both residents of Tangmarg – were also killed in the accident.

A tree, uprooted by strong winds, fell on the ropeway of Gulmarg Gondola and severed the lines due to which the cable car came crashing to the ground, an official said.

“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],” he posted on Twitter.