5 pilgrims who perished in Uttarkashi chopper crash were women; 3 of them from Mumbai

MUMBAI/BAREILLY/TIRUPATI: Long before their lives ended together on a hillside in Uttarkashi, three women in Powai's Hiranandani Gardens had spent years building separate but quietly intersecting lives — rooted in care, community, and the kind of civic action that rarely seeks credit. As the helicopter they boarded for Gangotri failed to return, Dr Kala Soni, Vijaya Reddy, and Ruchi Agarwal became names in a tragedy that spread across three states.

Ruchi's mother Radha, who hailed from Bareilly, also died in the incident.

Dr Kala Soni, 61, and Vijaya Reddy, 57, weren't only neighbours in Powai. They had co-founded the Young Environmentalist Programme Trust, 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.

Ruchi, 56, an engineer, had left behind a job in Pune to care for her mother. The arrangement was never discussed. Radha, 79, had moved from Bareilly to Powai when her health declined, and Ruchi simply restructured her days.

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.

Vedavathi Kumari, 48, a native of Ramnagar in Anantapur and sister of TDP MP Ambica G Lakshminarayana, also died in the crash. She was travelling with her husband, Maktur Bhaskar, 51, who survived with serious injuries and remained in critical care at AIIMS Rishikesh.

In Powai, the news travelled fast. Elsie Gabriel, who founded 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 some-thing in the fabric of the community had been cut. "They were constant. You took their presence for granted," he said.