Nine Tourists Killed in 2021 Kinnaur Bridge Collapse

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The video, which has been widely shared on social media, captures a tragic event from July 25, 2021, in the Basteri area of the Sangla Valley in Himachal Pradesh, India. During the monsoon season, a massive landslide occurred, dislodging large boulders from the mountain slope. These rocks struck a tourist vehicle traveling across a Bailey bridge, causing the structure to collapse into the Baspa River below. The incident resulted in nine fatalities and three injuries. The victims were tourists visiting from various parts of India, including Rajasthan, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh. Following the collapse, rescue operations were conducted by local authorities, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) later announced ex-gratia payments of ₹2 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased individual and ₹50,000 to each injured person from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF). The disaster sparked significant discourse regarding the ecological fragility of the Kinnaur region, with environmental groups and experts citing the combination of climate change, seismic sensitivity, and unscientific construction related to hydropower projects as contributing factors to the increased frequency of such landslides in the Himalayas.