Friends and family are mourning the death of a 22-year-old international student and fundraising to repatriate her body to India, after she was killed by a falling tree near Kelowna last weekend.
Rittika Rajput died on Saturday while she and a group of friends were visiting James Lake.
RCMP have confirmed that officers were called to the scene just before 3 a.m., and say it was a non-suspicious incident.
Amarjit Lalli, a family friend, said Rajput and her friend were having a late-night bonfire at the recreation site when a gust of wind came and they heard a cracking sound.
“The girls kind of got up and started running. One went one way and, unfortunately, Rittika went the wrong way and the tree ended up on top — is what we’ve been told,” Lalli told Radio West guest host Brady Strachan.
Rajput had been living in Kelowna while studying hospitality management through online courses at a B.C. college, Lalli said.
Lalli, who lives in Kelowna, said he went to James Lake after Rajput died and saw the fallen tree and a broken bench.
While Lalli didn’t know Rajput personally, he said he met her parents in India through a relative while visiting last year. Lalli is now acting as a spokesperson for the family and supporting a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Rajput’s repatriation.
The GoFundMe describes Rajput as kind-hearted and hard-working.
“Rittika was not only a loving daughter but a caring sister to her siblings,” it reads.
Lalli said Rajput’s mother, who is a seamstress in India, took out a significant loan to send her daughter to school in Canada, in hopes she could build a better life.
“The mom’s not taking it too well. I don’t think she’s fully accepted that she’s passed on … they want the body back in India and I think they just want closure.”
According to the fundraising page, money donated will also go toward covering Rajput’s college debt and legal costs.
The B.C. Coroners Service said it is investigating her death.