Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Oct 27: Bodies of two victims who drowned at Kaup beach near the light house there on Saturday October 25 evening, could not retrieved in spite of efforts put in by rescue teams the entire day on Sunday. Out of 18 persons belonging to a single family of Prakash Rao from Karkala who had been on a visit to Kaup beach, five had been swept away by waves. Two among them, Harishchandra Raol and Parjwa, had been rescued.
Jagadish Rao (40), Sunil (33), and Harsha (14), had drowned in the sea, and the body of Jagadish Rao was found on the other side of Kaup light house on Saturday itself. The other two bodies have remained elusive, although search operation was launched on Saturday evening itself.
Family members of Sunil and Harsha anxiously waited at the beach all through Saturday night, hoping to find their bodies. A team of expert rescuers including Soori Shetty, policemen, and firemen, and also hundreds of other people, who kept all night vigil and closely monitored movements at the sea the entire night failed to achieve any positive result. Some local divers like Shivaji Kotian, Deepak Kotian, and Padmanabh, entered the sea that is choppy by taking grave risks. Their attempts to try to get the bodies by using nets also failed. As the waves were strong, Padmanabh faced grave danger, and his two friends succeeded in bringing him ashore.
Karkala MLA, Sunil Kumar, has criticized the district administration for not doing anything in the issue even after a day and half since the bodies went missing. He said that the district administration is expected to depute defence forces to help in rescue in such cases, and pointed out that the minister, deputy commissioner of the district, as well as the superintendent of police have not visited the beach so far. He urged the district administration to act fast and help the family that has been facing a crisis.
The locals came down heavily on the district and tourism department for failing to stop deaths from occurring at Kaup beach. This beautiful beach attracts hundreds of tourists every day, and many of them overlook risks and enter the sea. Although several lives have been lost at irregular intervals, the above departments have failed to either set up disaster rescue team or expert divers to save lives. Coast Guard, fire brigade etc are supposedly equipped to handle such situations, but none of them have evinced enough interest to retrieve bodies from the sea so far, several locals said.