Delhi man falls off cliff in Uttarakhand's Tehri while taking selfie, dies

DEHRADUN: A 29-year-old man from Delhi fell off a cliff near Totaghati temple in Tehri district of Uttarakhand on the Badrinath highway while trying to click a selfie on Sunday. The man, identified as Dilip Mandal, and his two friends were on the way to Kedarnath shrine when the incident took place.
Providing details, an official from the state disaster response team said, "The three were going in a car and had taken a break in Tothaghati. While taking a selfie, Mandal, a resident of Delhi Cantt, slipped and fell into a deep gorge. There was no time for his friends to react. He died on the spot."
Mandal's body was retrieved following a two-hour operation by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and later handed over to Devprayag police.
One of the two survivors, Ankit Mahato, told TOI, "We are in a state of shock. The three of us were supposed to drive up to Sonprayag, before trekking to Kedarnath." A number of cases of people dying after slipping while taking selfies have been reported from the Himalayan state in the past few years.
In April 2018, a 24-year-old man from Dehradun fell to his death after climbing the wall of ISBT flyover to take a selfie. In February of the same year, a 27-year-old from the city was trampled to death by a pachyderm when he tried to take a selfie with the female elephant and its calf in Thano. In the same year, a 22-year-old college student fell into a 50 feet ravine, again while taking a selfie. The incident took place near Kolukhet.
In July 2016, a 24-year-old woman was swept away in a rivulet near Maldevta on the outskirts of the state capital while taking a selfie.