CANACONA: Three more bodies of Nagarmadi waterfall tragedy were recovered on Monday afternoon, after an intensive search by Karwar fire and police personnel, assisted by locals. However, Renuka Margatti still remains missing.
It may be recalled that over 60 merrymakers of three different groups from various parts of Goa had gone for a picnic at Nagarmadi waterfall, located at Chendia about 10 kms from Karwar town.
While all were having a good time, it suddenly started raining heavily and some say it was a cloud burst on catchment areas of the waterfall, which resulted in sudden rise of water.
While most of the picnickers started rushing towards safety and higher grounds, at about 1.30 pm there was a sudden gush of water, which rose to nearly 6 feet high in a matter of minutes.
A video taken by a local named Vinaik shows a man getting washed away and yelling for help and a terrified group of five including men and women clinging on to each other in knee-deep running water, with another person who was standing at a safer spot trying to give them a stick for assistance. But by the time anybody could reach for the stick, all five were washed away in the strong torrential currents of the stream.
Later, at about 2.30 pm Karwar rural police and fire office were alerted, who rushed to the spot for rescue and search operations, which was subsequently abandoned at 7.30 pm due to bad weather, dense vegetation and poor visibility.
Dead bodies of twenty-one-year-old Francila Pires and twenty-eight-year-old Fiona Pacheco, both residents of Raia, Salcete were later located, entangled in shrubs downstream, after the water receded. The bodies were shifted to district hospital at Karwar for postmortem and were cremated on Monday at Raia.
The search operations which began Monday morning yielded results as three more bodies of the victims were recovered downstream and were identified as Siddesh Chari, 22 from Vasco, Sameer Gawde, 32 from Ponda and Marcelina Estibero from Raia. The bodies were later shifted to the district hospital for postmortem and handed over to the families of the deceased.
Karwar police informed that after intense search operation one of the missing person, twenty-three-year-old Renuka, who was temporarily residing at Raia was yet to be found and they assume that she too may not have survived the tragedy.
They said Renuka was from Gulbarga district of Karnataka and was a friend of one of the picnickers and was working in Goa. On hearing about the incident, her sister came from Gulbarga and is stationed in Karwar. Sources told Herald that Curtorim MLA Reginldo Lourenco again visited Karwar on Monday for assisting the families of the victims in getting the formalities done quickly.
Karwar police have confirmed that the search for the last missing person would resume on Tuesday morning.
