Unfenced water bodies snuffing out young lives in Garo Hills
TURA: What started off as an attempt to raise the economy of the region and the production of fish by creating numerous ponds for its breeding purpose, unfenced water bodies in the North Garo Hills region are becoming death zones snuffing out young lives due to drowning.
On Tuesday, tragedy struck three families from Manikganj area of Mendipather when their young children drowned in a fish pond they gotten into to cool themselves after school.
The bodies of six year old Ranbir Juro, Dipen Rabha (5 years) and Rishab Rabha (3 years 6 months) were fished out of a village fishery pond at Miapara village of Manikganj, 9kms from Mendipather, on Tuesday evening.
Ranbir, who was a Class I student of St. Thomas School in Mendipather was returning home with Dipen and Rishab, studying in Nursery and Lower Kindergarden classes at Manikganj Memorial School, respectively, when they decided to get into the pond that was unattended and unfenced.
Tragically, they never made it out alive. Villagers returning from work spotted the bodies of the three children afloat on the water and alerted police.
This is not the first instance of drowning inside man-made water bodies in the region.
In May, this year, brother-sister duo of Pringsal (6 years) and Akime Chisa N Marak also drowned after stepping into a fish pond at Babupara village of Mendipather.
Similar cases have also occurred in other parts of the Garo Hills region, including that of three teenage boys who died from drowning in a pond in Gambegre region of West Garo Hills.
In each of these tragedies there were no people around and the water bodies had not been barricaded to prevent intrusion.
“In the light of these cases we have advised villagers to set up a kind of perimeter fencing to deter children from entering the ponds,” informed North Garo Hills police chief Sacheng Marak.
Under a government programme, particularly MGNREGA, dozens of villages in several districts of Garo Hills, particularly north Garo Hills, created artificial lakes and fish ponds to raise pisciculture as a way of boosting their economy.
There is also the problem of students in the region not having the opportunity of being trained in life-saving exercises-particularly swimming.
Several months ago, two school-going sisters who went to cool themselves were dragged by the water currents of a tributary of the Simsang river near Williamnagar and drowned.
With every new reported case of drowning taking place a lesson is being learnt with tragic circumstances.
