INDIA, Nov 16, (Agencies): A tragic incident occurred on Wednesday in northern India's mountainous Doda district, where a passenger bus, carrying 55 people, veered off the hilly Batote-Kishtwar national highway. The bus plunged more than 600 feet into a gorge, resulting in the loss of at least 36 lives and leaving 19 individuals injured. The accident happened approximately 123 miles southeast of Srinagar, the main city in the Jammu and Kashmir state.

Efforts were underway to airlift the injured victims to a hospital in Jammu city. Indian President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed their sorrow over the incident. President Murmu conveyed condolences to the bereaved families and wished a speedy recovery for the injured through a post on the social media platform X. Prime Minister Modi, also expressing distress, offered condolences to the affected families and hoped for the swift recovery of the injured.

In response to the tragedy, Modi's government announced compensation of 200,000 Indian rupees (about $2,400) for the families of those killed and 50,000 rupees (about $600) for the families of the injured victims. Unfortunately, road accidents are not uncommon in India's mountainous Himalayan region. In 2019, a similar bus crash in Kishtwar district claimed 33 lives, and that same year, 44 people lost their lives when a bus lost control on a hilly road in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, tumbling down a hill.