In two separate incidents a German and an Indian national reportedly attacked by sea creatures of the deep at Goa’s infamous Calangute beach are doing the rounds on the internet. Unfortunately, these weren’t reported to the police.
“On Tuesday (January 3) afternoon, an Indian tourist was bitten by a hichan. These sea snakes appear close to the shore during winter and some of them are aggressive and sometimes attack,” lifeguard Amit, who was on duty on the Calangute-Candolim beach stretch, told IANS.
Amit said that they gave the injured person first aid treatment to heal the bite wound after rescuing him from the sea. In addition to this, he said that lifeguards have also spotted many sea snakes or hichans over the past few days.
General Manager, Drishti Beach Management Services, Mr.Prabhakar Pandey, confirmed the incident. He is appointed by the Goa Tourism Ministry for lifeguard services on the popularly frequented beaches of the Goa’s 105-km long coastline.
It is said that on the day of the first incident, it was German tourist Clare Arni who was attacked. This time, though, a bigger sea creature seemed to have attacked.
We read about such things in story books or watch them in the movies. It seems very unlikely that any big sea creature would swim ashore to attack anyone. These swimmers were swimming in the deep which is out of bounds according to the lifeguards.
Clare, swam deep into the sea and then came in contact with a ‘sea creature’, which could also be a sharp object. She ended up getting 28 stitches to sew up the so-called bite wound on her leg.
She was admitted to Bosio Hospital in Candolim as an OPD (Out Patient Department) case.
A spokesperson for the hospital said it was clearly a wound resulting from a bite by a big fish. She was given the required suturing and medication and later discharged from the hospital as she had to urgently leave for Bengaluru for better treatment.
The state Tourism Department has undertaken timely precautionary measures and alerted tourists and locals about the attacks in the sea.
Goa has in the past never witnessed any attacks on humans by sea creatures. Hope those frightful creatures return to their usual habitats undisturbed, away from human contact.
