On Monday (8th January) night, an electric vehicle (EV), sent for a trial ride, met with an accident in the Chilla range of Uttarakhand’s Rajaji Tiger Reserve, killing five people, including two forest guards. A lady warden is also missing since the accident.
The rescue mission went on late into the night. The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) stated on Tuesday (9th January) morning that there were ten people in the vehicle. While five injured individuals were sent to AIIMS in Rishikesh for treatment, the force initiated a search for the warden who fell into the Chilla Canal.
The victims have been identified as forest range officials Shailesh Ghildiyal and Pramod Dhyani, Saif Ali Khan, and Kulraj Singh. Aloki, a wildlife protector, had also reportedly gone missing. However, the officials on Thursday (11th January) recovered the dead body of Aloki taking the death toll to 5.
Among the injured are doctor Rakesh Nautiyal, Govind Singh, Amit Semwal’s son who was in the car, Ankush, Ashwin Biju, and doctor Amit Semwal. Kulraj and Ankush are said to be employees at a vehicle manufacturing company.
The vehicle’s driver claims that forest officials forced him to overload and speed up while testing the all-terrain electric SUV.
A video of the crash, shared by news agency PTI, shows the EV first traveling at regular speed on a stretch of road. A person, presumably the driver, could be heard begging someone to let some individuals out of the vehicle. “Kuch logon ko utarna padega sir… risk nahi lena hai sir, jhatke me gir gaye…” the individual speaking could be heard saying. (Some individuals need to get out of the car; we cannot accept the risk, what if someone falls during a crash?)
STORY | Trial EV accident: EV company deeply saddened; driver says was forced to speed, overload
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 10, 2024
Four people, including two forest rangers, died after their trial EV met with an accident in Uttarakhand's Rajaji Tiger Reserve on Monday evening. The accident was recorded in the… pic.twitter.com/7xObtnfVFZ
According to the police, the tragedy happened while an interceptor vehicle brought in for patrolling and wildlife rescue was being tested on the Chilla range. As the EV drove from Chilla to Rishikesh, it collided with a tree ahead of the Chilla Power House and the Chilla Shakti Canal’s parapet. During the impact, some of the passengers fell into the ditch, while Aloki fell into the canal.
People traveling behind them in another vehicle alerted the police and park administration to the accident, and the rescue operation began immediately. Police and forest department officials rescued the injured from the ditch and transported them to AIIMS, where doctors confirmed four individuals dead.
In their statement, the SDRF stated, “Under the leadership of Manikant Mishra, Commandant SDRF, a search operation was carried out till late night in search of a woman officer who went missing during a vehicle accident in Chilla Canal. After taking stock of the incident site, Commandant SDRF identified important places for effective search operations where there is a strong possibility of success during the search. Necessary instructions were also given to SDRF deep divers by him.”
However, the SDRF team on Thursday (11th January) confirmed that the missing woman officer has also died. “The body of a missing Rajaji Tiger Reserve official was recovered from the Chilla canal here on Thursday, taking the death toll to five,” an SDRF official said.
“Devi’s body was found floating on the surface of the canal, which had been scoured by a team of divers since the accident occurred,” SDRF inspector Kavindra Sajwan said. The body was pulled out of the water and handed over to the police, he said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday (10th January), the police filed a lawsuit against representatives of the firms that produced and modified the electric car involved in the accident during a test drive.
The FIR in the case was filed against the representatives of Aska and Pravaig Dynamics companies, as well as the vehicle driver Ashwani Biju, under various sections of the IPC, including 304A (causing death by negligence), 279 (negligent driving endangering human life), and 338 (causing grievous hurt by rash, negligent action), according to SHO Ravi Kumar Saini of the Lakshman Jhula police station.
However, the firm, Pravaig Dynamics issued statement in the matter and said that the FIR overlooked critical facts, including trial being authorised by the forest department, and that forest department officials overloaded the trial EV and took it off the approved boundary for trial runs.
The driver, a BE Mechanical Engineer, also claimed that forest officials urged him to overload and hurry up throughout the trial.
According to the statement, the driver’s first trial on Monday morning, which was permitted by the Uttarakhand forest department, went off without incident. However, during the second round of demonstrations in the afternoon, forest officials compelled him to carry nine persons (a total of ten, including the driver) despite the seating capacity of eight.
The corporation claimed that they had gotten proper permission from the state forest authority to conduct the test drive solely within the Rajaji National Park. “That permission did not allow forest department officials to violate the authorised capacity of our demonstration vehicles (of 8 pax). The forest officials were not allowed to instruct our test driver to trespass speed limits,” the statement said.
“Forest personnel (some in uniform) not only forced our test driver Ashbin Biju (BE Mechanical), to violate the boundary conditions, some of them chose to perch dangerously on the back bumper of our demonstration car and overloaded it, forcing it to go off balance”, the statement further said.
“We request that under law and principles of natural justice, Uttarakhand Police records a fresh FIR with all the relevant facts,” the statement went on to say.
