DEHRADUN: A woman was swept away in Bhagirathi river at Manikarnika Ghat while she was filming a social media reel on Monday.
The horrifying event was witnessed, and even inadvertently recorded, by the woman's young daughter, whose desperate cries of "Mummy-Mummy..." echoed through the ghat as her mother disappeared beneath the turbulent waters.
Despite extensive search efforts, the woman remains missing, leaving her family and authorities in distress.
The victim has been identified as 35-year-old Visheshtha, of Nepali origin.
Eyewitnesses at the scene alerted the authorities immediately. Responding swiftly to the emergency, police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and the Quick Response Team (QRT) launched a comprehensive search operation.
SDRF Inspector Kavindra Sajwan told TNIE, 'Raft and boats were deployed in the river and the lake of the Joshiyada Barrage, downstream from the ghat. An SDRF unit from Ujeli post conducted a thorough search using deep divers. Despite relentless efforts throughout Thursday, the woman could not be located.'
According to police sources, Poorna Shahi, a resident of Kathmandu, Nepal, had come to the city with his wife Visheshta and their 10-year-old daughter Impressa, who was staying with her aunt.
Tragically, the child became an unwitting documentarian of her mother's final moments. As the little girl filmed, the unthinkable happened: her mother was pulled into the river's powerful flow. The child's screams pierced the air as she watched her mother being carried away.
As darkness fell, the search operation was temporarily suspended, with plans to resume next morning again. The fate of Visheshtha remains uncertain, casting a pall of grief over the ghat and raising questions about the growing trend of seeking social media moments in potentially dangerous environments.