MAWKYRWAT/ TURA: Five minors drowned in separate incidents in South Khasi Hills and North Garo Hills districts since Tuesday, according to delayed reports.
Two minor boys from Lawblei village, 10 km from Mawkyrwat, South West Khasi Hills district drowned in the Umngi river on Thursday while three children aged between three-and-a-half and six years met their watery grave in a fish pond at Miapara village of Manikganj, 9kms from Mendipathar in North Garo Hills district on Tuesday.
P. Kharsyiemiong, a resident of Lawblei village, said the incident took place at around 1:30 pm – 2 pm when the two boys went to take sand from Umngi river at Thwei Siangkai and both of them drowned.
The two were identified as Wanboklang Kharsyiemiong (16) and Wondersing Sohphoh (16) from Lawblei village.
Syiemiong also informed that the body of Wanboklang was fished out on Friday morning at around 6:30 by the local people along with the police while that of Wondersing is still trapped in the river.
The police informed that the search and rescue team from Shillong is expected to arrive soon to help in fishing out the body of Wondersing.
Syiemiong also informed that the police have handed over the body of Wanboklang to the family members for their last rites after post-mortem examination.
In North Garo Hills, three minors drowned in a fish pond at Miapara village of Manikganj, 9 km from Mendipathar on Tuesday.
The bodies of Ranbir Juro (6), Dipen Rabha (5) and Rishab Rabha (3 years 6 months) were fished out of the pond on Tuesday evening.
Ranbir, who was a Class I student of St. Thomas School in Mendipathar, was returning home with Dipen and Rishab, studying in Nursery and Lower Kindergarten classes at Manikganj Memorial School, respectively, when they decided to get into the pond that was unattended and unfenced.
They never made it out alive. Villagers returning from work spotted the bodies of the three children afloat on the water and alerted the 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) and Akime Chisa N Marak also drowned after stepping into a fish pond at Babupara village of Mendipathar.
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.
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.
