CHENNAI: Nine people, including seven minors, drowned in five separate incidents across the state in the last two days. While five died in Tiruvallur district in two incidents, two each drowned in Thoothukudi and Theni.
Early on Tuesday, three people, including two boys, fell into a temple tank at the Veeraraghava Swamy Temple in Tiruvallur while performing morning pooja by the tank.
According to the Tiruvallur police, the deceased were identified as R Veeraraghavan (24) of Virudhunagar, S Venkataraman (17) of Ambattur and M Hariharan (16) of Kundrathur.
They were part of a group of five Vedic students who had come to the temple for the Chithirai Brahmotsavam festival. Around 6 am on Tuesday, the students were performing ‘sandhyavandhanam’, when one of them slipped and fell into the water.
Kin of 3 victims get Rs 3L solatium each
The other two jumped into the tank to save him, but they too drowned, police said. Other students alerted the temple authorities. Fire and rescue services personnel recovered the three bodies, police said. The bodies have been sent to a government hospital for postmortem. Chief Minister MK Stalin has announced a solatium of Rs 3 lakh each to the families of the three victims.
In the second incident in Tiruvallur, Harish (17) and his cousin Venkatesan (17) were washed away when they went to take a dip in the Kosasthalaiyar river on Monday afternoon. According to the Periyapalayam police, Harish was a resident of Thirukandalam village in Uthukottai and Venkatesan’s family had come to visit them for summer holiday.
Around 1pm, the boys went to the river but did not return home even by evening. Their parents lodged a police complaint and a search operation was started with the help of fire and rescue department. Later, fire department personnel used a rubber boat to locate the bodies at the river and recovered them. In Thoothukudi, a 16-year-old girl and an autorickshaw driver drowned in sea near Mottai Gopuram late on Monday.
Sources said S Antony Vijayan (40) had taken a few children from MGR Nagar to the sea on Monday evening. One of them, M Kaleeswari (16), had ventured deep into the sea and drowned. Vijayan who attempted to save her, also drowned. While Kaleeswari’s body washed ashore on Monday night, Vijayan’s body was retrieved on Tuesday. The bodies have been shifted to Thoothukudi medical college hospital for postmortem. The Tharuvaikulam Marine police have registered a case.
In Theni, a 10-year-old drowned in the Chinna Suruli falls on Monday evening. K Rakesh, a resident of Nagalapuram, went to the falls on Monday evening along with his relatives. Relatives, who noticed him missing after bath, later found him unconscious in a pit. He was then rushed to the government hospital in Kumantholu where doctors declared him brought dead. The Mayiladumparai police have registered a case. The forest department has stopped entry of tourists to the falls.
In Gudalur in Theni district, a Class XII girl drowned in Mullaiperiyar river while taking bath on Tuesday. Nivedha (16) of Coimbatore had come to her grandmother’s house in Gudalur along with her mother. On Tuesday, she had went to the river along with her mother, and drowned while taking bath.
A global report on drowning released in 2024, which analysed 55,000 drowning fatalities in India in 2021, found that 79% of victims were men and 35% of victims were between 14 and 29 years of age.The report also flagged lack of disaster risk management policy specific to drowning.
(With inputs from Theni and Thoothukudi)