As the five-day-long Durga Puja festival came to an end on Wednesday, the unfortunate news of deaths during the idol immersion (visarjan) was reported from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.<\/p>\n
In West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri, seven people died and several were feared missing after flash floods hit the Mal River during Goddess Durga idol visarjan. The incident occurred around 9.15 pm when several devotees gathered on the banks. \u201cWe rescued around 60 people, and 15 of them have been hospitalized.<\/p>\n
First, two bodies were recovered but five more were found later,\u201d Jalpaiguri district magistrate Moumita Godara Basu told the local media at around 11 pm.<\/p>\n
The flash flood in the Mal river is being attributed to heavy rainfall that the state has been receiving this week. According to the Met department\u2019s forecast, the state will again receive heavy rain this weekend (on Oct 8 and 9).<\/p>\n
In Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Agra, a 15-year-old boy and two youths aged 19 and 22 drowned in the Yamuna River during Durga idol immersion. No one was found in the rescue operation that was carried out till late evening, news agency ANI reported citing officials.<\/p>\n
In Rajasthan’s Ajmer district, a similar tragic incident occurred on Wednesday where six people drowned in a ditch filled with rainwater during the immersion of a Goddess Durga idol. All six bodies were recovered during a rescue operation, and will be handed over to family members after the autopsy, news agencies reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ditch where the incident occurred is often used for idol immersion by locals,\u201d Ajmer Superintendent of Police Chuna Ram Jat told PTI. The deceased thought it was a shallow ditch and went down, but it was deep and they all drowned,\u201d he informed.<\/p>\n
Earlier, incidents were also reported during the Ganesh visarjan that took place on September 9. At least 20 people died across Maharashtra, and eight people died in Haryana.<\/p>\n
The pandemic-induced restrictions had curtailed the celebration in the last two years. Free from those restrictions, the festival was celebrated widely in 2022.<\/p>\n
(Inputs from PTI and ANI)<\/em><\/p>\n