This story is from September 10, 2019

Six children enacting Ganesh Chaturthi drown in tank in Karnataka

Three girls and as many boys playing out Ganesha idol immersion drowned in a pond outside their Maradaghatta village, near KGF, in Kolar district, on Tuesday afternoon.
Six children enacting Ganesh Chaturthi drown in tank in Karnataka
Representative Image
BENGALURU: Three girls and as many boys playing out Ganesha idol immersion drowned in a pond outside their Maradaghatta village, near KGF, in Kolar district, on Tuesday afternoon.
The deceased children were all in the age-group of 8 to 11 years. The only survivor in their group, five-year-old Likhith, 5, had not entered the waters and ran back to the village to alert the elders about the tragedy.
Theja, 10, and his sister Rakshitha, 8; Dhanush, 8 and his brother Likhith; Rohith, 9, and his sister Vyshnavi, 10; and Veena, 11, all residents of Maradaghatta village, had been playing around in the village from the morning, as it was a holiday on the occasion of Muharram.

The seven children had recently participated in a Ganesha immersion procession. In the afternoon, they headed towards the pond on the outskirts of their village.
According to the little evidence that they had gathered from Likhith, police said the children decided to enact a Ganesha immersion. They made a small Ganesh idol using soil in the village and took out a mock procession. The group later headed to the pond 50 metres away from the village.
Six of the children entered the pond to immerse the Ganesha idol and the youngest of the lot, Likhith, stayed out. The children drowned in the pond where water ran five feet deep.

Around 4.30pm, the villagers rushed to the pond and fished out the children’s bodies. Usha, mother of Thejas and Rakshitha informed police, who rushed to the spot and shifted the bodies to KGF Town hospital for postmortem.
Police sources said they are yet to ascertain the information that the children went to immerse Ganesha Idol as there are no eyewitnesses.
The pond had remained dry through the year and was recently filled with water after moderate rainfall in the area. The pond is usually used to feed water to cattle, a police officer said.
The parents of the dead children work as farm labourers. The village has around 50 houses and a population of around 300.
The village plunged into funereal silence as its residents struggled to come to terms with the tragedy, police said.
A villager said that a earthmover had recently dug up a small trench attached to the pond. The children first entered the trench and unknowingly entered the deeper side of the pond and drowned, he added.
Chief minister B S Yediyurappa has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for each of the dead child.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA