Three children found dead in a wooden box in Uttarakhand, police suspect they got trapped while playing

Police believe the children — two girls aged 10 and seven, and a boy aged four — might have been playing, “got trapped in the box” and were asphyxiated to death.

Updated on: May 20, 2018, 17:34:03 IST

Hindustan Times, Dehradun | By Neeraj Santoshi

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Three children were found dead in a wooden box in their home in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district on Saturday night, police said.

Deputy superintendent of police, Pithoragarh, Shekhar Suyal said a post-mortem will clarify how the children died. (Shutterstock/Representative image)

Police believe the children — two girls aged 10 and seven and a boy aged four, all siblings — might have been playing and “got trapped in the box” and were asphyxiated to death.

Deputy superintendent of police, Pithoragarh, Shekhar Suyal said further investigation and post-mortem would clarify how died.

The children were Nisha (10), Sapna (7) and Karthik (4).

The incident happened in Kumti village under of Bulwakot in Dharchula area of Pithoragarh, nearly 457 km from Dehradun.

Suyal said the children’s grandparents were at their farm while their parents had gone to collect ‘Keerajari’ from the higher reaches of the Himalayas.

‘Keerajari’, a fungus found in Himalayan mountains and popularly known as ‘Himalayan Viagra’, is hunted by locals in the meadows in May and June when snow starts melting.

Suyal said when grandparents of the children returned home, they couldn’t find them and started a search. “After a lot of searches, they finally found them in the wooden box.”

The district authorities are trying to locate their parents to inform them about the incident and ensure their return at the earliest.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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