A young woman jumped off the Kaieteur Falls yesterday morning in an apparent suicide.
She has been identified as Roshanie Phagwah, 21, called “Tricia,” of East Canje, Berbice.
Phagwah’s jump off the falls, the world’s largest single drop waterfall, occurred just minutes after 10 am. It was the second such case in the last two months.
The Ministry of Tourism and the Protected Areas Commission, in a statement issued yesterday, said Phagwah was part of a group comprising nine tourists and two guides (a Kaieteur Ranger and a staff member of Roraima Airways) that was about to be taken back to their aircraft when the woman turned, ran towards the falls and jumped into the gorge. The tour guides on duty, the statement said, were unsuccessful in intercepting her dash.
The statement also noted that due to the incident, the Kaieteur National Park will be closed until further notice as investigations are conducted by the Guyana Police Force. In September, Gyaneshwarie Laleta Sivanand went missing during a visit to the falls and it was suspected that she had committed suicide by jumping off the falls into the gorge. Her body was not recovered until two weeks later by a Guyana Defence Force special team.
The ministry said yesterday that revised tour protocols, including two guides per tour, regular head counts and the reporting of unusual behaviour, were in place and observed at the time of the incident.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum told this newspaper that investigators have questioned all eight tourists who were present at the time of the incident and have obtained written statements.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that one of the tourists indicated that the group was heading back to the airstrip when he observed Phagwah turn around and then sprint towards the falls before making a sudden jump. Phagwah, according to a reliable source, was not exhibiting any unusual behaviour during the trip.
Arrangements will be made to have soldiers visit the area to retrieve the body but the time for this was not immediately known.
Annette Arjoon-Martins, General Manager of Air Services Limited (ASL), which was responsible for the tour, said the incident was rather unfortunate.
She noted the issue of mental illness in Guyana faced by the general population and called on families to be more supportive. Arjoon-Martins also spoke about the need for more to be done to address mental illness, which she said is the contributing factor to such incidents a majority of the times.
ASL has been doing tours for over 25 years and ferries at least 5,000 visitors annually.
When contacted yesterday, a cousin of Phagwah refused to comment and efforts to contact other relatives proved futile.
