A travel influencer died after falling hundreds of feet into a gorge while recording footage for an Instagram Live, multiple outlets have reported.
Aanvi Kamdar, a 27-year-old accountant and travel blogger, was sightseeing with seven of her friends at the Kumbhe waterfall, less than 100 miles outside of Mumbai, India, on the morning of July 16 when she suddenly slipped and fell 300 feet into the valley below.
"She fell on the hard, slippery patch of rocks around 300 feet into the valley and couldn't be spotted initially," one rescuer reported to The Economic Times. Multiple rescue crews worked for six hours to retrieve Kamdar from the gorge, CBS News reported.
"She was sent up using a stretcher attached to rappelling ropes,” the rescuer explained. “Six rescuers climbed down the hill, while another 50 assisted atop the hillock."
“She had fallen about 300–350 feet,” another rescuer told NDTV (via The Independent). “Despite reaching her, rescuing her was challenging due to her injuries and heavy rain, so we used a vertical pulley.
Kamdar was initially responsive when authorities reached her and during her extrication from the valley. She was taken to Mangaon Taluka Government Hospital and put on a ventilator, but tragically died on Tuesday afternoon.
Kamdar, who boasts nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram under the handle @theglocaljournal, was reportedly shooting an Instagram Live at the time of the accident. Her final post, made the day before her death, listed the five best locations to visit during India’s rainy season.
Kamdar’s tragic death is just one in a line of several recent tragedies involving influencers or tourists suffering harrowing accidents while distractedly sightseeing.
Earlier this week, a couple also located in India were forced to jump 90 feet from a train trestle to avoid a locomotive bearing down on them. They had been distracted taking photographs at the picaresque location. Days after that, married travel influencers drowned after falling from a mountain in Japan.
