PUNE: A 28-year-old woman from Wakad suffered severe injuries after falling into a 150ft gorge on Rajgad fort while trying to ward off a swarm of bees on Saturday.
Members of two trekking groups rescued the woman, brought her down on a makeshift stretcher and sent her to a private hospital in Nasrapur, about 35km from here.
Viraj Suryavanshi, the doctor treating the woman, said she is out of danger. “She has severe injuries on her forehead and near the waist. Her left hand is fractured and two ribs are broken. The trekkers brought her on a stretcher instead of wrapping her in the bedsheet, which helped avoid complications.”
The woman's husband and brother-in-law were also stung by the bees. Their 15-year-old nephew, who lay still on the ground when the bees swarmed around, escaped unhurt, said Audambar Adwal, a police officer from Velhe.
Trekkers Rohan Devare and Shubham Bhojane said the woman, her husband, brother-in-law and nephew came to the fort on Friday and stayed overnight at the Padmavati temple.
"On Saturday, another group of trekkers told us about the bees near Suvela Machi on the fort. We both went up to the spot and righted the flag and left immediately as the bees were around," Devare said.
On their return, he said they saw the woman and her family having breakfast. "We alerted them about the bees," Devare said. After he and Bhojane had descended more than halfway, he got a call from a member of a trekking group about the accident on the fort. "We climbed back to help them," he said.
On their way up, the woman's brother-in-law contacted Devare and told him that the family saw a local girl running towards them from the side of Suvela Machi. She was being attacked by the bees. The woman and her husband covered the girl with a shawl. But before they could cover themselves with another shawl, the swarm was upon them.
"The woman began running helter-skelter. All three were attacked by the bees. In the confusion, the woman's spectacles got misplaced. She ran for safety but lost her balance and fell into the gorge. Her descent halted a few metres away from another deep gorge," Devare said.
By the time Devare and Bhojane arrived, trekkers Abhishek Jangle, Vaibhav Thete and Rohit Jadhav had brought the woman up. " My senior advised us to take her down on a stretcher instead of a bedsheet. The local people helped us make a bamboo stretcher. We also used a sleeping bag. The Velhe police were ready with an ambulance at the foothills. We brought her down in 45 minutes and sent her to a hospital," Devare said. They went back a third time to fetch the woman's husband and brother-in-law, who were badly stung . "We sent them to hospital in a vehicle arranged by the sarpanch," Devare said.
