A girl from Baruipur on the city’s southern fringes who went on Amarnath Yatra with her mother, maternal uncle and others died in the flash flood triggered by Friday’s cloudburst near the cave shrine, family members said on Sunday.
Her body reached the city on a flight late on Sunday.
Six survivors reached the city in the same flight.
Barsha Muhuri, in her early-20s, was pursuing postgraduation in geography at Asutosh College, said neighbours and friends.
“She was her parents’ only child. I came to know about the incident on Friday night but we decided not to share the news with her father, Chandan Muhuri, who is unwell. But we had to tell him today (Sunday) because his involvement was needed to complete the formalities to bring the body from Kashmir,” said a neighbour and family friend Goutam Roy Chowdhury.
Barsha was planning to pursue PhD after her postgraduation. Barsha, her mother Nivedita, maternal uncle Subrata Chowdhury, family friend Ujjwal Mitra, his wife and daughter and another family friend, Uday Ghosh, had left Kolkata on July 1 for the pilgrimage to the cave shrine in Kashmir.
“What I learned from the survivors was that their group had reached a spot close to the Amarnath cave when the flash flood started. For some time Subrata was holding on to Barsha with one hand and Nivedita with the other. A big boulder came rolling down and hit Nivedita on her legs. She fell and Subrata’s full focus turned on her. Barsha then slipped out of his grip,” Roy Chowdhury said.
Uday, who was leading the group, survived as he managed to reach a safe place.
Ujjwal and his family were moving with a separate group and were at a different spot when the tragedy struck, one of the family members said.
Barsha’s body was fished out at a spot downstream from the cave a few hours later.
Roy Chowdhury said Nivedita had suffered multiple fractures in her legs and is being treated at a hospital in Srinagar.
The Telegraph contacted Ujjwal and Uday, but both said they were not in a position to speak.
Neighbours at Chakrabortypara in Baruipur, where Barsha lived, said she was a “bright child” and loved to travel.
“She would go out on trips with her maternal uncle. She was extremely agile and helpful in nature,” said a neighbour.