The deceased have been identified as Arvind Chandrakar, his wife Prachi, and their sons Darsh and Akshad (a family originally from Chhattisgarh but settled in Bengaluru); PG Karthikeyan, his wife Manimala and their son Nandan, residents of Bengaluru; and taxi driver Vishwas Salhota, a resident of Banikhet in Chamba district.
Chamba Superintendent of Police Vijay Kumar Saklani said the two families had met during a visit to Dalhousie, and decided to explore the snow-clad Sach Pass region together. They hired a shared taxi and set out on Friday for the scenic but challenging Bairagarh-Sach Pass-Killar route.
Their vehicle crossed the Bairagarh check post on Friday afternoon, and was expected to return later in the day. However, the taxi failed to return to Dalhousie within the scheduled time, neither did it reach Killar on the other side of the pass, which raised concerns.
A search operation was immediately launched with the assistance of area residents familiar with the difficult terrain on Saturday. During the search, the police and local volunteers spotted the mangled remains of the vehicle deep inside a gorge near a sharp bend at Kalaban.
The accident site was located several hundred feet below the road on a steep mountain.
However, rescue teams were unable to carry out recovery operation immediately due to fading daylight, the absence of a direct access route, and the extremely difficult terrain. The operation resumed early on Sunday morning with the involvement of police personnel and local volunteers, who used ropes and formed human chains to descend into the gorge and retrieve the bodies.
Saklani said the accident site posed significant challenges for rescuers. The bodies were recovered after more than seven hours of strenuous efforts.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the accident occurred while the vehicle was returning from the Sach Pass side towards Bairagarh. The exact cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained.
A case under sections 281 and 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has been registered at the Tissa police station, and further investigation is underway in the matter.
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