RAIPUR: A picnic turned out to be a major tragedy for a family from Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh when seven members were washed away at Ramdaha falls, around 100 km from district headquarters Korea and around 430 km from state capital Raipur in Chhattisgarh, on Sunday afternoon.
Till filing of this report, bodies of three persons identified as Himanshu Singh (18), Rishabh Singh (24) and Ratnesh Singh (26) were fished out by the rescue teams while three were still missing and they were identified as Shweta Singh (22), Shraddha Singh (14) and Abhay Singh (22). Surekha Singh (22) was the lone member to be rescued successfully.
Korea district collector Kuldeep Sharma told TOI that seven persons, perhaps belonging to one family in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, had come for the picnic. Ignoring the warning on the signboard of the forest department installed at the picnic site, the family took bath in the falls and were apparently washed away. The incident happened between 1 PM and 2 PM on Sunday, he said.
Two youths, including Surekha and Ratnesh, were immediately rescued by the other picnickers present at the spot. However, Ratnesh was declared dead by the doctors while Surekha was doing well when they were taken to a nearby hospital.
Later, the rescue teams recovered two more bodies while three were still missing, said the district collector. Meanwhile, the family members of the victims had arrived at the spot, said the collector. Rescue operation was affected after sun sets in, he said.
Police personnel and administration officials had reached the spot to supervise the rescue operations.
A similar incident took place at Ramdaha falls some five months back in which three youths drowned. All of them were from Madhya Pradesh’s Umaria district.
Meanwhile, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has expressed grief over the incident.
