VIDEO: Family of 7 swept away in waterfall near Mumbai

Seven people including a woman and four children, were washed away in a waterfall and drowned downstream in a reservoir, at the famed hill station of Lonavala in Maharashtra state of India on Sunday, a police officer said.

A newlywed couple was also among the members of the devastated family who were washed away in a waterfall behind the Bhushi Dam in Lonavala near Pune while they were out on a picnic on Sunday. The couple was rescued and is presently in the hospital, a resident who knows the family that lives in the Sayyad Nagar area of Pune’s Hadapsar said on Monday.

 Lonavala Police Station Incharge Mayur Agnave said that the tragedy occurred around 2pm when the victims, all from Pune, and some others had gone to enjoy the waterfall, gushing in the hilly forests near the Bhushi Dam.

The deceased have been identified as Shaista L. Ansari (36), Amaima A. Ansari, (13), Umaish A. Ansari, 8, whose bodies were recovered on Sunday evening from the dam.

Two other victims are Adnan S. Ansari (9) and Maria A. Syed (9) whose bodies have not been found and the search shall be resumed on Monday morning, the police officer said.

Local residents suspect that they may have slipped on the mossy stones at the base of the falls, got carried away in the force of the water and met a watery end in the Bhushi Dam waters which were lashed by heavy rainfall in the past few days.

Taking serious cognizance of the tragedy, the Lonavala police have issued an appeal asking people to exercise extreme caution while visiting some of the popular monsoon picnic spots in and around the hill station. They have also urged the people to refrain from straying into unknown or isolated areas which may prove dangerous.

A day after the Lonavala hill station tragedy, Maharashtra Minister for Relief & Rehabilitation Anil Patil called upon the people to be extremely cautious while going out on monsoon picnics to major tourism spots.

The minister’s warning came even though rescue agencies were engaged in a major operation to trace the bodies of two minor boys.

Patil said that people in their thrill for adventure enter the waters without realising the possible danger lurking there and such tragedies occur.

On Sunday afternoon, around 18 persons from the Khan and Ansari families of Syed Nagar in Hadapsar who had gone for a picnic to Lonavali, had unknowingly ventured into the cool waterfalls gushing in an isolated jungle area upstream of the Bhushi Dam.

At least 10 persons of the two families were swept away due to a sudden increase in the water owing to heavy rains lashing the regions for the past three days.

Patil said that the state chief secretary will contact the collectors in all the districts in the state to take suitable measures to prevent such incidents and if needed, ban entry to such accident-prone spots.

Raising the matter in the Legislature, state Congress President Nana F. Patole slammed the government for not taking adequate steps to prevent such tragedies and improve the facilities at such tourism locations.

"There have been many similar incidents in the past yet the government ignores them. What measures the government has taken to avoid such recurrences, except making promises,” demanded Patole.

Indo-Asian News Service