Vidushi Nautiyal, Pune
12 people have lost their lives during Ganpati idol immersions, including 10 who drowned in the immersions taking place in Pune, Nashik and Jalgaon on Wednesday and Thursday. A young child lost his life in Nashik after being struck by a tractor, and a man died in Pune after reporting chest pain during Ganpati processions. The immersions started on Thursday, on Anant Chaturdashi which marked the end of the 10-day festivities.
According to the police, three individuals drowned in Panchvati while an equal number faced a similar fate in the Nashik Road area. The toll extended to other regions of the state, with Umbraj in Satara, Wajirabad in Nanded, and Karjat in Raigad, near Mumbai, each reporting one drowning-related fatality.
On Thursday, a five-year-old boy lost his life in Moshi after falling into an underground water tank within his housing complex. According to the police, the child, identified as Arnav Ashish Patil, had gone to see the immersion celebrations of the Ganapati mandal and accidentally fell into the water tank via a partially open lid. His parents initiated a search when they couldn’t locate him, and CCTV footage revealed the child’s presence near the tank’s lid. Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, he was declared dead by the doctors. The police have classified the case as accidental death.
In a separate incident, a 26-year-old man fell into the Pavana river in Gahunje during the Ganesh immersion on Thursday night. Nilesh Garade of Wanyajeen Rakshak, Maval, who has been looking for the individual, said the man lost his balance after entering the water for visarjan. Despite extensive search efforts, authorities were unable to locate him on Thursday. After an unsuccessful boat search on Friday, they decided to resume the pursuit on Saturday.
A 16-year-old child was rescued from the beach in Juhu during the immersion celebrations on Thursday, but he was pronounced, “dead on arrival” by the doctors at the nearby hospital. In another incident, a tempo driver and a 17-year-old girl were killed when the tempo crashed into an idol immersion celebration in Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra’s Konkan region due to break failure.