In a heart-wrenching tragedy, four adolescents were drowned in the Ganga river at Madurapur ghat in Narayanpur, Bhagalpur Bihar Monday morning.
People gathered here for a holy dip in the Ganga and cried for help as the boys started drowning. Six among the group of eleven boys were saved but the remaining four were swept away. Later, the bodies of the four boys were recovered by divers.
Sources informed that ten of the boys had treaded into deeper water and they frantically started saving themselves after realizing the deep danger. Meanwhile, people on the ghat also noticed and they shouted for help. They managed to save six boys but the remaining four were drowned.
The incident created commotion among the crowd.
The deceased were identified as Shivam Kumar 18, Sonu Kumar 16, Alok Kumar 18, and Sanjeev Kumar 17.
Sources said this particular ghat has witnessed several drowning incidents in the past. Such areas are declared danger zones. The local administration limits the area of bathing and people are forbidden from crossing the rope or any other such marking.
However, the Bhagalpur administration had taken no such concrete steps to quell such a drowning tragedy. Divers and lifesavers are also supposed to be present on the spot and the local police keep warning bathers to watch out and refrain from wading into deeper waters. The boys could have been saved in case the administration had been alert.
The holy month of Shravan started on July 22 and the administration was fully aware of the presence of a large number of bathers on this occasion.
