The beautiful Nagarmadi waterfalls in Chendia village about 10-12 km away from Karwar turned out to be a tragic one. Six persons in total were found dead including one from Ponda while other bodies are still missing.
Yashwant Raikar, from Goa, was swept away in the floods for 2km at Nagarmadi waterfalls, along with others. But he caught hold of a tree. He came out of the stream when the water level subsided and fell unconscious. Some people from a search party rescued him later. His family thought he didn’t survive the floods.
The whole of Priol and Ponda talukas were devastated by the death of these youngsters. The locals want to stop people from going to the waterfall due to the recent deaths.
Around 50 picnickers in three different groups from Ponda, Vasco and Raia had gone to the waterfall. The bodies of two ladies 21- year- old Francila Pires and 29- year- old Fiyona Pacheco both r/o Raia were found on the same evening. Police are still on the lookout for 23- year- old Renuka Murbutti.
Francila Pires was a newlywed and her husband was with her at the waterfalls. He survived the accident but lost his wife.
The rescue team couldn’t continue the search operation at about 7 pm on Sunday due to the bad weather and poor visibility. Three more bodies were recovered on Monday after resuming the operation.
Three bodies recovered on Monday:
32- year- old Sameer Gawde- Ponda
22- year- old Siddesh Chari- Vasco
38- year- old Marcelina Estebeiro from Raia
Marcelina’s body was found near a prawn-growing farm while the bodies of Chari and Gavade were found in the Seabird area.
The girls from Raia, Francila Pires, and Fiona Pacheco were laid to rest on Monday evening. A lot of people had come to bid farewell to the two. Sameer Chandrakant Gaude (32) from Karmale Kerim, was cremated on Monday.
He too had recently married about a half year ago and is survived by his wife Teja, mother, brother Nirgosh Gavde (journalist), sister and sister-in-law Madhu Godkirekar.
This spot is quite dangerous no doubt but the picnickers should have taken into consideration the weather condition. Many deaths have occurred there and two Goans had died at the same falls earlier this year.
One of the survivors spoke out and explained what happened on Sunday. He said, there was a sudden rise in the water level that washed away these people. In the previous article, the video shows what exactly happened.
Click here to check it out.
He added, it was bright and sunny at first, but all of a sudden it turned dark and began to rain heavily. The color of the clean blue water turned into a dirty red color. Most picnickers tried their best to avoid drowning and rushed to higher grounds for safety. They took the support of small branches and held tight to whatever was close to them.
Another friend pulled out this survivor from the death trap. He thought this was the end for him after seeing people being pulled away who were in the same location- Nagarmadi waterfalls.
The bodies were found at different places; bushes with thorns and other horrible unimaginable areas. It is sad to have seen these people suffer so badly. A ban on people entering the Nargamdi falls cannot be an answer to this. If one thing goes wrong, you can’t ban it.
What do you think?
