Environmentalists, MP's sis, caregiver & mom: 5 pilgrims who perished in crash were women

Time of India

08-05-2025

Mumbai/Bareilly/Tirupati: Long before their lives ended together on a hillside in Uttarkashi, three women in Powai had spent years building separate but quietly intersecting lives — rooted in care, community, and the kind of civic action that rarely seeks credit.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
As the helicopter they boarded for Gangotri failed to return, Dr Kala Soni, Vijaya Reddy, Ruchi Agarwal, and her mother Radha Agarwal became names in a tragedy that spread across three states. But they had not set out to become stories. They had simply lived them. Dr Kala Soni, 61, and Vijaya Reddy, 57, weren't only neighbours in Hiranandani Gardens. They had co-founded the
, a grassroots initiative that ran tree plantations, taught children to reuse plastic, and turned religious festivals into ecological lessons.
Their work wasn't always visible, but its effects were — in the saplings outside school gates, the recycled Ganesha idols, the quiet network of women-led organising in the neighbourhood. Reddy, a yoga instructor by practice and temperament, had started free Zoom sessions during the pandemic for recovering Covid patients.
She didn't just teach pranayama — she listened, answered late-night queries, stayed in touch. Her WhatsApp group was never dormant. The air of calm she carried had less to do with breathing techniques and more to do with how she chose to live. Ruchi Agarwal, 56, an engineer, had left behind a job in Pune to care for her mother. The arrangement was never discussed. Radha Agarwal, 79, had moved from Bareilly to Mumbai when her health declined, and Ruchi simply restructured her days. Radha had once been the centre of her own household, raising three daughters with quiet precision. Independence mattered to her, even when it was no longer fully possible. Ruchi respected that. Together, they shared space and silence easily. Earlier this year, Radha returned to her home in Alamgiriganj, Bareilly, insisting on doing things herself. She wiped down shelves, checked on gas fittings, and told neighbours she'd be back after the yatra. To her sister-in-law Neeru, she said, "Who knows if we'll meet again?" It didn't land as foreshadowing then. Their final journey began as part of the
, a route through Uttarakhand's high-altitude shrines.
Like many older or physically strained pilgrims, they had opted for a helicopter service to shorten the climb. The flight was brief. The crash that followed near Kedarnath killed six people. Only one survived.Vedavathi Kumari, 48, a native of Ramnagar in Anantapur and sister of TDP MP Ambica G Lakshminarayana, also died. She had been travelling with her husband, Maktur Bhaskar, 51, who survived with serious injuries and remained in critical care at AIIMS Rishikesh.
Tired of too many ads? go ad free now
In her hometown, relatives and neighbours prepared for her body's return. In Powai, the news travelled fast. Elsie Gabriel, who founded the Young Environmentalist Programme Trust, said the loss struck at the very root of what they'd tried to build. "These weren't women who just showed up," she said. "They were the ones who stayed late, who reminded you why you were doing it in the first place." Photographer Mukesh Trivedi, who had often seen the women at local events, said it felt as if something in the fabric of the community had been cut. "They were constant," he said. "You took their presence for granted."