Call it nothing short of miraculous. Trapped beneath a landslide in Sharan village in Seraj Valley, Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, a 20-year-old woman fought for her life for five agonizing hours.
As a mass of soil, rocks, and debris buried her, Tuneja Thakur managed to create a small air pocket with her bare hands to keep breathing. Every moment, the suffocating weight pressed harder, but she refused to give up.
“I cleared just enough mud so I could breathe,” she recalled. Gasping for air, she knew she would not survive unless she kept digging relentlessly.
Outside, her family and neighbors searched desperately for her in the darkness and pouring rain. Inside, time seemed to stand still. “The only thought in my mind was that I had to get out alive,” she said.
Eventually, her parents spotted her and pulled her free. The landslide struck around 11:30 pm on June 30, after flash floods from a cloudburst swept through Mandi district. “Everyone was running out in panic as water flooded the houses. I stepped outside to look for safety when the earth collapsed on me,” Tuneja recounted.
Her remarkable survival has inspired many, standing out amid widespread devastation caused by the flash floods that damaged homes and infrastructure across the region.
Himachal’s Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri and opposition leader Jai Ram Thakur met Tuneja last week to commend her extraordinary courage and determination.