3 cousins among 5 children who drowned in Kolhapur & Sangli districts on Monday

Kolhapur: Five children died in three separate drowning incidents across Kolhapur and Sangli districts on Monday, highlighting a sharp rise in such fatalities amid the summer rush to water bodies, with Kolhapur alone reporting 15 drowning deaths in the past week.In the first incident, three schoolgirls, all cousins, drowned after slipping and falling into a farm pond at Hundlewadi village in Chandgad tehsil of Kolhapur on Monday evening.The deceased girls have been identified as Dhanushka Sambrekar (15), Riya Sambrekar (10), both originally from Ambewadi, in Belagavi district in Karnataka, currently residing in Goa, and Swarali Naik (13), originally from Hosur, Chandgad, currently residing in Kolhapur. According to the police and villagers, the girls, along with another six-year-old cousin, Vrishabh, had gone for a walk when they entered the pond, but misjudged its depth and drowned one after another.The tragedy came to light when Pundalik Mohangekar, a resident of Kini village, came to the spot to teach his daughter how to swim and noticed the boy (Vrishabh) screaming for help. He alerted Hundalewadi sarpanch Suhas Bamane, and local residents rushed to the pond and pulled the girls out. The girls were unconscious and were later declared dead.Sub-inspector Akash Bhingardive, of the Chandgad police, said, “As there is no facility for autopsy at the Kowad primary health centre, the bodies of all three girls had to be taken to the Chandgad rural hospital for autopsy. Villagers were very upset with the lack of an autopsy facility at Kowad. The bodies were handed over to the relatives after postmortem.”In another incident the same evening, 15-year-old Vishwajit More drowned in the Vedganga river at Mhasve village in Bhudargad tehsil of Kolhapur. He is survived by his parents, sister and grandparents. The incident has been registered with the Bhudargad police station.Meanwhile, in Sangli district, a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler, Shravan Patil, drowned after slipping into a canal of the Mhaisal irrigation scheme at Borgaon village in Kavathemahankal tehsil. Shravan’s family resides 1km away from the village. The Mhaisal irrigation canal passes about 400 feet from this settlement. On Monday, Shravan went to a farmland with his relatives at 9.30am. While playing, he slipped and fell into the canal unnoticed and drowned. The relatives noticed later that Shravan was missing and started searching. His body was found floating in the canal.Police have registered cases in all three incidents as authorities reiterated the need for caution around water bodies, especially as soaring temperatures continue to draw crowds to ponds, rivers and canals.