Tourist dies in Sikkim while taking pictures

Photo Courtesy: Sikkim Chronicle

TT, 17 February 2019, Gangtok: A 26-year-old woman from Calcutta on a trip to north Sikkim drowned in the Lachung Chu river on Friday afternoon after slipping and falling into the water while taking pictures standing on a rock.

The body of Priyanka Bagchi, a resident of Adhar Chandra Das Lane near Ultadanga Main Road, was found on Saturday.

Sikkim police said Priyanka was with some relatives when the tragedy occurred around 4.45pm. "She had apparently climbed a rock to take pictures of the scenery. She slipped and fell into the river," an officer said. Local residents joined the police in looking for Priyanka but dusk fell soon after and the search had to be abandoned.

When the search resumed on Saturday morning, the young woman's body was found around 300 metres downstream from where she had fallen.

The body was sent for postmortem to a government hospital in Mangan, the headquarters of north Sikkim and around 55km from the state capital. Local police have started a probe.

Priyanka's death has prompted stakeholders in the travel industry to call for safety surveillance at popular tourist sites across Sikkim. According to tour opera- tors, an awareness campaign should be launched for local guides and residents of each such tourist destination so that they can advise visitors to steer clear of danger.

"Police personnel should be part of the campaign," said Samrat Sanyal, general secretary of the Himalayan Hospitality and Tourism Development Network in Siliguri. "Tourists need to be told not to risk their lives to take pictures. They should restrict themselves to safe places from which to click pictures. There is always the risk of unfortunate incidents occurring if people are not cautious.".