Photo: Kg1729 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
At least 11 people, most of them minors, died when a boat carrying villagers to a feast overturned in the Ganga near Rampur Shyamchand village in Bihar’s Vaishali district on Tuesday evening, the district administration said.
What happened
The boat went down in the Raghopur Diara area, under the Raghopur police station, while ferrying passengers from one riverside settlement to another. Most of those on board were heading to a community feast linked to funeral rites in a nearby village, according to local accounts.
Estimates of how many people were on the boat varied. Villagers and early reports put the number at around 20, mostly young men and children, while other accounts said there may have been 25 to 30. Some passengers swam to safety, and residents who saw the boat overturn rushed into the water to help. Those pulled out were taken to a primary health centre at Fatehpur in Raghopur, where doctors declared several of them dead.
Officials said the boat appeared to have lost its balance, although the exact sequence of events was not yet clear. Local reports said it was carrying more people than it could safely hold and tipped over in a strong current midstream.
Search goes on in the dark
The Vaishali District Magistrate confirmed 11 deaths and said district police officials and a team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) had been sent to carry out search operations. Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) joined the effort, but darkness and deep water slowed the work. It was not immediately clear how many people were still unaccounted for. Raghopur Block Development Officer Seema Kumari confirmed the incident.
The bodies recovered so far have been sent for post-mortem examination, and officials are working to formally identify the victims.
Compensation and reactions
Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary described the deaths of children in the accident as heartbreaking and said the state government would pay ₹4 lakh in ex gratia assistance to the family of each person who died. He said the administration had been told to finish relief and rescue work quickly and to make sure the injured received proper treatment.
Most of those who drowned are children. May God keep everyone safe.
Tejashwi Yadav, RJD leader and Raghopur MLA
Tejashwi Yadav, who represents Raghopur in the Bihar Assembly, said he had spoken to local people and officials, and that instructions had been given to speed up relief, rescue and medical care. The Bihar Congress also expressed grief over the deaths.
A familiar danger on the river
Along the diara belts of the Ganga, boats are an everyday way of getting between hamlets on either side of the river, and accidents on these crossings are not new. In May, at least three people died and four went missing when a boat carrying 14 farm workers overturned near Sultanpur Diara in Samastipur district. Officials at the time pointed to strong winds and an engine failure midstream.
