eleven-drown-in-jharkhand-during-chhath-puja-rituals

Tragedy struck several districts of Jharkhand as 11 people, including multiple children, lost their lives in drowning incidents during the Chhath Puja festivities over the past two days.

 

Reports from across the state indicate that most of the victims drowned while offering prayers or bathing in ponds and rivers.

 

According to police sources, five children drowned on Monday alone, taking the total toll from drowning incidents during the festival to 11. Several others, including a minor boy and two men, were reported missing after being swept away in separate incidents.

 

In Hazaribag, two girls — Gungun Kumari (11) and Rupa Tiwari (12) — drowned in a village pond at Bela under the Keredari police station area on Sunday evening while performing Chhath rituals. Their bodies were later recovered and sent for post-mortem examination.

 

In Garhwa, 13-year-old Rahul Kumar of the Sadar police station area drowned in the Danro River on Monday afternoon while bathing.

 

“Rahul went into the deeper part of the river and was pulled under by the current. Locals rescued him and took him to Sadar Hospital, where doctors declared him dead,” said Sadar police station in-charge Sunil Tiwari.

 

In Simdega, a two-and-a-half-year-old girl from Mayangsor village under Bano police station drowned in a bucket of water inside her home on Monday. The incident occurred when her grandmother briefly went to another room. On returning, she found the child submerged in the bucket, police said.

 

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Another drowning occurred in Seraikela-Kharsawan district, where a 14-year-old boy, Aryan Yadav, drowned in the Subarnarekha River near Saherbera under Chandil police station on Monday evening after offering arghya during Chhath Puja.

 

“Aryan ventured into a danger zone and began to drown. Two others — Prateek Kumar Yadav (19) and Sanjay Singh (45) — jumped in to save him,” said a police official, adding that Aryan’s body was recovered by the NDRF and local divers, while search operations for the two missing men will resume on Tuesday morning.

 

In Palamu, a 16-year-old boy went missing after jumping into a canal near Chaura Bridge in Bishnupur village under Hussainabad police station on Monday.

Earlier, on Sunday evening, three children drowned in Simdega district, and three others lost their lives in similar incidents in Palamu.