Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (MS)

Karkala, Jun 4: More than 288 people died in the triple train accident that took place at Balasore of Odisha state. In the Howrah express train, which was one of the trains that was involved in the accident, 22 people of Dakshina Kannada (DK) were travelling along with 110 pilgrims of Kalasa. They had a providential escape.

In the Howrah-Bengaluru train 15 pilgrims of Dakshina Kannada, including seven from Karkala were travelling to holy places. The team included Gunaverma Jain and Divyastuti Jain of Karkala Jodu Rasthe, Pradeep Indra of Renjala in Karkala, Simhasenendra of Keruvashe, Vidyananda of Kasaba, Rajaiah and Chandravati of Mala, Kishore Kumar, Trishala, Padmashree of Moodbidri, Ashalatha, Mamata and Deeparshree of Venoor, M Jinaraja Shetty of Mangaluru, Shantinatha, Ranjitha, Sookshma, Jeetendra Kumar, Shantilal, Prasanna Kumari of Dharmasthala, Prabhachandra Chowta and Vimalavati of Dharegudde.

Balige Mahima Sagara Muni Maharaj of Kalasa had organized Sammeda Shikharji Yatra from June 1 in Jharkhand. So the team of 110 people of different districts of Karnataka was going to attend the same. They were all travelling in the Howrah-Bengaluru train, which they boarded on June 1 at midnight. The train met with accident at Balasore on June 2 night.

One of the pilgrims Gunaverma Jain said, “The team of 110 passengers of Karnataka were seated in the first bogie after the engine. However, the engine was changed in Vishakhapatnam to the other side and this saved the lives of all the pilgrims of Karnataka.