For two nights, 23-year-old Budheswar Deep lay injured in a 200-metre-deep gorge beside the lifeless bodies of his co-workers, before clawing his way up a near-vertical slope to become the lone survivor of the Anjaw truck tragedy in Arunachal Pradesh that killed 20 labourers. The daily wage worker from Assam’s Tinsukia district is now battling injuries in the ICU of Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh, where doctors say his condition is stable but he remains under close observation.
The fatal plunge
The accident occurred on the night of December 8 at around 8.30 pm, when a truck carrying 21 labourers from Gelapukhuri Tea Estate and Dhelaghat Tea Estate in Tinsukia was heading towards Arunachal Pradesh for construction work along the remote Hayuliang–Chaglagam Road in Anjaw district. The vehicle reportedly skidded off the narrow mountain road and plunged into a steep gorge, leaving the workers trapped in darkness far below the cliff.
“The truck went down in seconds. I was thrown around and everything went dark,” Budheswar recalled softly from his ICU bed, his voice barely audible over the beeping monitors. He said that when he regained some sense, he found his colleagues lying motionless around him. “I tried shaking them, calling their names, but none responded,” he said.
Two nights among the dead
Badly injured and unable to move, Budheswar spent two days and nights wedged among rocks and surrounded by the bodies of his co-workers, many of whom had grown up with him in Gelapukhuri Tea Estate.
“I slept with them for two nights. I couldn’t move. I was hungry and thirsty. I kept hoping someone would come,” he recounted, his eyes welling up as he spoke of the silence in the ravine. Rescue teams were unaware of the exact spot as the crash occurred in a remote, network-dark stretch of the Hayuliang–Chaglagam road, delaying any immediate response.
With no food, no water and severe injuries, Budheswar said he drifted in and out of consciousness, listening only to the sound of the wind and the river far below.
Climbing out of the gorge
On the morning of December 10, desperation pushed him to attempt an escape he believed he might not survive. “I thought, if I die while climbing out, so be it. But if I stay, I will surely die,” he said. Gripping onto shrubs, roots and rocks, he began inching his way up the nearly 200-metre slope, a climb that took several agonising hours as dizziness, pain and exhaustion from hunger and dehydration slowed every step.
At the top of the gorge, he spotted a thin pipeline running along the roadside. “I broke it with my hand and drank the water. I felt a bit better after drinking water,” he said, describing how the first few gulps revived him just enough to continue moving. He then started walking slowly along the deserted mountain road, stopping at intervals to drink from the same line as the day wore on.
Rescue and treatment
As dusk approached, a passing truck driver noticed the injured youth and immediately stopped to help. The driver lit a fire to warm him and took him to a nearby Adivasi family, who offered him rice, dal and an egg. “I could eat only two spoonfuls,” Budheswar said, recalling how his body, starved for days, struggled to accept food.
Later that night, a team of Army personnel, alerted about a survivor from the Anjaw accident, reached the location, gave him first aid and shifted him to their camp before he was moved to a local hospital and then referred to AMCH in Dibrugarh for advanced treatment.
Doctors at AMCH said Budheswar has suffered multiple injuries and psychological trauma; while his condition is currently stable, he will remain under close observation as he begins the long process of physical and emotional recovery.
