Fire officials in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar after Ganpati visarjan: We were pulling out bodies only next day as nobody realised they had drowned

This has been the worst death toll during Ganesh Utsav – 23 in 10 days – in years, according to fire officials of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Of these, 11 took place in the catchment area of the river where the water flow from Karai canal is quite strong and the riverbed uneven, drowning the devotees. They came in drunk to immerse idols, paid no heed to warnings. Since there was heavy rush here, nobody could realise if someone had drowned.

Giving the final death toll on Monday, Rajesh Bhatt, Additional CFO of Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services (AFES) said, “Six people drowned in the outskirts of Ahmedabad, 11 in Gandhinagar, five in Kapadvanj and one in Nadiad.”

“I have never seen so many people dying in one year during Ganesha Visarjan,” said Mahesh Mod, Chief Fire Officer of Gandhinagar Fire and Emergency Services (GFES). His team was also the one that saved the most people this season. GFES saved seven people out of 10 while three died from the group on September 19.

It was only because the district authorities decided to completely barricade the catchment area of the river with help from police personnel on the last day of the visarjan (September 23) that many more deaths were averted, Mod said.

Fire officials said that in spite of repeated warnings, devotees from Ahmedabad, especially from Chandlodia, Chandkheda and other areas close to the state capital kept pouring in to Gobleshwar Mahadev temple to immerse their idols near Karai, often in an inebriated state.

“People were coming in huge groups and in spite of eight swimmers being stationed in the area, 11people died because often in the rush, nobody realised when someone went missing.

We were hunting and retrieving bodies the next day due to the strong flow of the water and the chaos,” said Mod. Fire officials in Ahmadabad breathed a sigh of relief as there were no drowning casualties in the city itself.

“Thankfully, the riverfront prevented people from jumping into the river here,” said Bharat Mangela, who heads the water rescue team of AFES.

However, it was due to the riverfront’s impeding access to the water that raucous revellers opted to go to Gandhinagar to immerse the idols of Lord Ganesha, leading to so many deaths.