As many as 13 tourists, stuck inside cable cars hanging from a ropeway that stopped moving due to an accident at 4pm on Sunday, will have to spend Monday night mid-air, battling poor oxygen levels at a height of over 1,500 feet in the Trikut hills of Deoghar district in Jharkhand.

Rescue efforts, launched by the state government with the help of Indian Air Force choppers and NDRF personnel, had to be halted on Monday night because it was too dark in the heavily forested area.

By dawn Tuesday, the stranded tourists would have spent close to 36 hours, trapped inside their cable cars, with drones supplying them with food and water.

Till Monday night four persons were said to have died, but the district administration had not confirmed the numbers. The last casualty was a middle-aged man who is understood to have fallen while being airlifted in a helicopter.

Local sources claimed the man lost balance after his safety harness got dislodged. A commando on the chopper held his hand and tried to drag him up. But the effort failed.

Of the 48 tourists stranded mid-air on the ropeway, 35 were rescued by Monday night, the efforts beginning on Sunday evening after the mishap that occurred around 5.30pm.

Two Indian Air Force helicopters were pressed into service by Monday. Teams from Indian Army, ITBP, NDRF and various wings of the local district administration were also part of the rescue efforts.

A section of the 800-metre ropeway snapped while on its last trip ferrying tourists on Sunday. One of the cable cars collided with another, which, in turn, hit a rock. This led to some wires being snapped, said local residents.

A challenging rescue mission

NDRF assistant commandant Vinay Kumar Singh, speaking over phone, said the hilly and forested terrain was making it extremely difficult to airlift the trapped tourists.

“The cabin cable cars are close to a hill due to which helicopters aren’t able to reach close to directly airlift those trapped inside. Hence, commandos came on the cabins through ropes and kept releasing stranded persons tying them with safety ropes through an evacuation channel created through ladders made of ropes,” he said.

Life and death

A tourist from Bhagalpur who was rescued said, “I had lost all hope as time passed. I came here to offer prayers at the Deoghar temple. At 4pm (Sunday), we entered the cable car to enjoy a ride. But the joyride turned out to be the biggest nightmare of my life.”

He said that spending the night thousands of feet above the ground, hanging in the air, was like living with life and death. “My phone battery got drained and I couldn’t contact my family. Some of us were finding it difficult to breathe at this height. During the day, the heat was unbearable. We could hear people wailing through the night, and there were echoes across the valley," he recalled, all the while thanking the Army and the state government for organising their rescue.

Sandip, who was stuck in a cable car for over 19 hours, said, "I feel Baba Baidyanath gave me a second life. I can't explain the harrowing experience in a hanging trolley overnight. It was frightening." He said the power of the trolley suddenly went off and it stopped midway. "When I called on the helpline number around 4pm on Sunday, I was told that it stopped due to a technical snag, which was being rectified. I called again around 7pm. They said the ropeway wasn't working and that we would be rescued via choppers on Monday. We were four of us in the trolley, and we were all very scared."

Added Devang Jaipal from West Bengal, "After offering prayer to Baba Baidyanath, I wanted to enjoy nature on this ropeway ride ... who knew that I would be hanging in a trolley for a whole night."

Launch date 2009

The ropeway service of Trikut Pahar, which began in 2009 is the only such tourist facility in Jharkhand. About 20km from the Baba Baidyanath temple of Deoghar, the three peaks of Trikut hill are said to signify the holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. The area is a huge draw for tourists from Jharkhand and neighbouring states of Bengal, Odisha and Bihar.

The ropeway was launched to ferry pilgrims to the top of the hill, which is a difficult climb on foot as there is no clear-cut pathway. The highest of the three peaks of Trikut hills is at 2,470 feet from sea level and around 1,500 feet from the ground. The ropeway takes tourists to the top of the main peak offering a 360 degree view of Deoghar.

Rescue efforts on: Hemant

Expressing sorrow over the incident, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said rescue and relief operations were being conducted on a war footing. "The government is keeping a close watch on the situation," he said.

Senior officials from Ranchi, disaster management ndepartment secretary Avinash Kaushal, DIG R. K. Mallick were among those who had reached the spot to oversee rescue operations on Monday. Tourism minister Hafizul Hassan, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey were also camping in the area.

Probe will be ordered: minister

Minister Hafizul told the media that the state government would conduct an inquiry against the private agency operating the ropeway after the rescue mission was over. “Let us first save all. Action will certainly be taken against all those who are guilty of negligence,” he said.

BJP MP says three dead

Local BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, however, claimed three persons were killed.

Raghubar scathing

BJP vice-president and former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das accused the state government of being inactive even after such a major accident. No minister from the region visited the site, he claimed. "The government does not care about the lives of the people. The inability to make quick decisions resulted in passengers hanging in the air overnight," Das said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah was keeping an eye on the entire incident, he claimed. He demanded that the state government provide compensation of Rs 1 crore to the next of kin of the deceased and government job, besides treatment of the injured at government expense.