The bus tumbled down a gorge in the Alaknanda River. The accident happened when pilgrims from the Indian state of Orissa were traveling home from a famous Shiva temple in the village of Badrinath.
The accident came just a few days after 15 Hindu pilgrims were killed and 53 injured in northern India in a stampede at a train station.
In early September at least 19 pilgrims died in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh as the result of a railway line accident.
Pilgrims are often the victims of accidents in India. On August 9, at least 85 pilgrims were killed in a road crash in India's north-western state of Rajasthan when the truck they were riding in fell into a gorge. The pilgrims had been traveling to the shrine of a medieval Sufi saint.
