Amid Dhuleti festivities in Gujarat, 20 revellers lost their lives due to drowning in the state on Monday. In a series of tragic incidents, 12 drowned in the Narmada canal and Sabarmati river in Gandhinagar.
This was the highest single-day toll in drowning incidents in the district in recent times, according to Gandhinagar Fire and Emergency Services (GFES) officials. Three deaths were reported from Bhavnagar, two each from Surat and Banaskantha, and one from Valsad.
Five of the victims who fell into the Narmada canal were from Naranpura in Ahmedabad. After playing Holi, they visited a sub-canal of the Narmada main canal near Ranchhodpura. Dhanraj Darbar, 23, and Rekha Nayak, 38, lost their lives while Harshad Nayak, 18, Manisha Nayak, 22, and Prem Katoria, 26, all residents of Hariomnagar, were missing till late Tuesday.
Police sources said that one person fell into the canal while washing his feet. The others slipped while trying to rescue him. Locals found Darbar and rushed him to Gandhinagar Civil Hospital, but he was declared dead. Rekha’s body was found on Tuesday.
In Bhat, Harji Chaudhary, 20, from Gheekanta and Haresh Chaudhary, 23, from Chandkheda, drowned in the Sabarmati. In another incident, three bodies were recovered from the Narmada canal in Vansol village of Kalol. One of the victims, Tarun Chauhan, was a 17-year-old from Alsodia village in Gandhinagar. The other victim was Ashok Senma, also 17, and from Kalol. The identity of the third victim is yet to be confirmed.
Near Ambod village, Sunil Thakor, 16, and his friend Sumit Thakor, 16, residents of Dholakuwa in Mansa, drowned while washing themselves in the Sabarmati after celebrating Holi, said a GFES official. Sunil slipped into the water and Sumit also drowned trying to save him.
Environmentalists have blamed illegal sand mining for these incidents. Excavation creates deep crevices in the riverbed that cause vortexes in the flowing water which lead to such tragic incidents, they said.
In Bhavnagar, three men drowned at a check dam near Talaja. Two men from Deesa drowned in the Banas in Banaskantha. In Surat, a Palsana resident lost his life while trying to save his friend from drowning in a canal near Chalthan village A man from Sathvav who had gone for a swim after Holi drowned in Lakhi dam in Surat. A rescue team recovered the body of a Valsad resident, from the Purna after he drowned while taking a bath after Holi festivities.
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