TURA: Barely a day has gone by since a family lost their precious young daughter to drowning in North Garo Hills, tragedy has once again returned to snuff out the lives of two infant boys who are missing and presumed drowned after they had been swept away by strong water currents of Simsang river in Williamnagar on Monday afternoon.
In the last one month, Garo Hills has been witnessing a series of tragic events in which young lives have been snuffed out by drowning. It began with four infants, two boys and girls, in Tikrikilla who unknowingly went inside a pond filled with flood waters to play only to lose their lives.
In Williamnagar, the two cousins, aged just 4 and 6 years, reportedly went to a secluded corner of the Simsang river at Kusimkolgre locality to cool themselves from the sweltering heat of the day.
Garo Hills has been going through a spell of intense heat since the last three days with day temperatures touching a high of 34 degree Celsius in some parts of the region.
Both brothers, 6-year-old Pringkam S Sangma and his little cousin Dean Dechura S Sangma (4 years) reportedly entered the Simsang river pool near the PHE water treatment plant around 1 O’clock in the afternoon.
Tragically, both children never resurfaced leaving behind only their change of clothes and footwear- a last reminder of their location from where they disappeared.
Despite frantic search conducted all along the river bank by local volunteers and swimmers the two boys could not be found.
“We have called in the state disaster rescue force personnel into the search for the missing boys. Efforts for retrieving by the locals and personnel of Fire and Emergency Services is on,” informed deputy commissioner Swapnil Tembe.
Hundreds of people from both sides of the Simsang river stretched for more than a kilometer in frantic search for the young boys who belonged to Kusimkolgre village itself.
The search was further hindered by the strong water currents of Simsang river which has been in spate due to continuous rainfall for most of last week.
This tragedy has taken place less than 24 hours after a 13-year-old girl- Mima Patiasa K Sangma fell into a waterfall at Daram Gurakol stream near Rongkuchong village in North Garo Hills while trying to save her friend.
Mima had gone to the waterfall with a group of friends when one of them lost her footing and almost fell over.
She was reportedly saved by Mima who held her back but sadly couldn’t get herself out of harm’s way as she plunged into the deep waterfall. Her lifeless body was retrieved by local divers from the bed of the waterfall, several hours later.