JOIN USThe bodies of four more people, who drowned after an overcrowded coracle capsized during the immersion of a Ganesha idol in the Tungabhadra River at Hadonahalli in Shivamogga taluk on Wednesday, have been fished out. Seven bodies were retrieved on the first day.
The search resumed around 7.30 am on Thursday with five more bodies needed to be traced. Seven teams, including one of the Indian Navy from Karwar, two squads of home guards (one from Shivamogga and another from Davangere district), expert swimmers from Harihar, firefighters from Shivamogga and local divers, worked in the operation.
The body of Chandrappa, 40, was the first to be retrieved on the second day at 8.15 am. The eight-member Navy team, headed by commandant Chandra V Chikar, ventured into the river around 9.15 am. It retrieved the bodies of Shankar, 22, around 11.15 am and Nayan Kumar, 22, at 1.20 pm. The body of Ganesh, 20, was fished out by local divers at 1 pm.
The teams searched for hours for the body of Sagar, 20, but the effort proved futile. The sight of his parents waiting for the body outside their house in the village with a cot was heartrending.
Mass funeral
Following the post-mortem, all the 11 bodies were buried in a row near an areca nut plantation at Hadonahalli around 4.10 pm. Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner V P Ikkeri, Zilla Panchayath CEO K Rakesh Kumar, Superintendent of Police Abhinav Khare, Eastern Range IGP M Nanjundaswamy, Shivamogga Rural MLA Sharada Poorya Naik and other officials attended the funeral.