In the evening of Wednesday, June 11^th it got confirmed that it was indeed a group of Russian ISKCON devotees whose bus crushed into the river Ganges in the Himalayas on Tuesday.

Two of them died on the spot, one is still missing, and five are seriously injured.

The news was spread all over the international media.

On Thursday morning the representatives of ISKCON New Delhi got in contact with Russian Embassy in Delhi, who provided them with the address of the hospitals where the injured Russian devotees were taken care of.

The Russian Embassy also gave some more information about the circumstances of the accident. According to them, the Russian devotees were traveling in four buses and were on their way to Gangotri. One of the bus drivers suffered a seizure attack, lost the control over the bus, which fell into a deep river valley. The driver has had a history of seizure attacks. 

The injured devotees were flown to Delhi on a special airplane arranged by the government of India. 

On Thursday morning, ISKCON-guru Gopal Krishna Goswami sent three Russian and an Indian devotee to visit the injured and take care of their requirements.

Five devotees (all ladies) are admitted at AIIMS, which is a reputed government run hospital close to ISKCON’s Sri Radha Parthasarathi temple. All five of them have suffered multiple injuries and fractures, but are out of danger. AIIMS also has a team of devotee doctors and they have made sure that the injured devotees are well taken care of.

One of the ladies, who have been admitted in this hospital lost her husband in the accident.

Another devotee (also a lady) is in a critical condition and has been admitted at the Medanta Hospital, a reputed multi-specialty private hospital in Gurgaon, and remains in the ICU.

On Thursday afternoon, the temple president of ISKCON’s Gurgaon along with his wife visited the hospital, but couldn’t speak to the injured Russian devotee due to her being in intensive care. They spoke to the doctors and offered their assistance in taking care of her.

The injured devotees informed ISKCON News that they had received a lot of help from the Indian government as well as the Russian Embassy, which is taking care of their expenses, also hired a charted plane to fly them to Moscow within a few days.

Devotees of ISKCON Delhi and Gurgaon regularly visit the injured in the hospitals, helping them through their difficulties. 

ISKCON News has learned that the group of around 60 initiated devotees and friends of ISKCON was organized by a devotee from Russia, who regularly leads tours to India. 

The passengers of the other three buses are well, and they are in Rishikesh at the moment.

More update to follow.