Ten persons, including eight children, died when the fishing boat they had boarded capsized near Nipania village in Odisha’s Kendrapara district on Wednesday evening.
The overloaded boat was anchored in a creek of the Mahanadi River system a few kilometres away from Hukitola, an unmanned island in Bay of Bengal and a popular picnic spot. The boat turned upside down when three of the occupants tried to embark from one side.
“Forest department, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force, police and local people carried out rescue operation on Wednesday night and managed to fish out nine bodies. Body of a six-year-old girl, who is believed to be dead, is to be retrieved,” said Dasarathi Satpathy, Kendrapara district magistrate, speaking to The Hindu via telephone from the spot on Thursday morning.
As many as 55 persons, mostly women and children, of 17 families belonging to Hasina village from neighbouring Jagatsinghpur district had come to Hukitola for a New Year picnic.
They had taken a fishing boat which was not fit for carrying passengers and was meant for a maximum of 20 people. They were returning to their village in the evening when a woman wanted to answer the call of nature. As the boat was anchored in the creek, two more women got down.
The boat turned upside down as all three tried to embark it from the same side. Hearing the shrieks of drowning passengers, the villagers of Nipania rushed to the spot. Braving the cold weather and possible presence of crocodiles in water, locals rescued passengers and retrieved dead bodies.
Expressing his grief over the boat tragedy, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday morning announced ex gratia of ₹4 lakhs to the next of kin of the deceased and free treatment to the injured.