In a very unfortunate situation, a 23-year-old PhD student from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) and her professor faced an accident when a Harappan Valley Civilisation site collapsed on Wednesday, November 27. According to The Indian Express, the student lost her life while the professor was in a fragile condition after being rescued from the adventure on their research trip.
The deceased has been identified as Surabhi Verma. The professor is identified as Yama Dixit from IIT Delhi, who is 45 years old. Dikshit is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) at IIT Delhi where Verma was pursuing her research.
The incident took place around 11 am on Wednesday, November 27, when the joint team of four researchers from IIT Delhi and IIT Gandhinagar had gone to Lothal — the ancient port city — to study palaeoclimatology. Lothal is located 20 km away from the nearest police station in Koth, and 70 km from Ahmedabad.
Following this, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Vadodara Circle, has sent a team to Lothal to investigate the incident and submit its report.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Om Prakash Jat, Superintendent of Police, Rural Ahmedabad, said, “The team had dug up a pit in Lothal and were collecting samples when the pit collapsed, burying two of the four members at the spot. It took the police 15 minutes to reach the site due to the distance between the accident spot and the nearest police station. In all, there were five people there, including the driver.”
SP Jat said, “We managed to rescue Professor Dixit but her condition was fragile. She was moved to CHC Bagodara, Ahmedabad, and later to Apollo Hospital in Gandhinagar because she had breathing problems and her oxygen was lower than optimum levels.”
Police give details
Police said that an Accidental Death (AD) report has been filed. Additionally, it was confirmed that there was no one at the site when the incident happened, although there were two other team members.
These two members are Associate Professor VN Prabhakar and Senior Research Fellow Shikha Rai; both are from the Archaeological Sciences Centre at IIT Gandhinagar.
Additionally, police said that the locals informed the police about the incident.
On Wednesday evening, a post-mortem examination was performed on Verma’s body at CHC Bagodara and her family was informed about her death.
Sources said the ASI has been asked to submit the report within 24 hours, as reported by The Indian Express.
