Israeli father falls to his death on family trek in India

A family trek in India ended in tragedy when an Israeli father fell to his death in front of his wife, son and two friends near Rishikesh, in the country's north, on Tuesday.

Ariel Frajman, 56, and his wife, Orit Frajman, had flown to India with another couple over the weekend to join their son, Asaf, on a trek. Orit Frajman told the Foreign Ministry by telephone that the party set out on the trek on Tuesday morning, and that her husband fell and died around 4 p.m. India time.

Rishikesh is in the foothills of the Himalayas, where the Ganges River flows from the mountain range to the plain region. Due to a lack of cell phone reception in the remote location, the party was only able to report the incident on Wednesday.

After Frajman's body was extracted from the area, his family found a police station in the nearby town of Uttarkashi, where they were able to process his death certificate and make arrangements to transfer his body to Israel for burial.

The Israeli Consular Affairs representative in New Delhi, Ziv Bilaus, along with the Foreign Ministry's Consular Services for Israelis Abroad department, were offering support and helping the family process the necessary documentation.

On Nir Tzvi, the moshav in central Israel where the Frajman family lives, residents struggled to grasp the news.

"Orit and Ariel decided to fly to India on Saturday with another couple to meet Asaf, their son, who had already been there for almost two and a half months on a break from his studies," said one family friend who went to the family home to pay condolences to the Frajmans' three other children, who had remained in Israel.

According to another friend of the family, the couple "talked about all of them coming home together after Sukkot. In India they went on a trek or some type of hike in the mountains and were walking along a crevasse. At a certain point, from what we understood, Ariel slipped and fell into the abyss."

A resident of Nir Tzvi described Frajman, the owner of a computer company, as active in the community, "a man of many accomplishments, an entrepreneur who advised several companies, among them governmental. He was a good person and it was always good to hear his wise opinions. This is a shock to all of us."

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