Boat mishaps in Andhra Pradesh claimed 600 lives in past 2 decades

Rajahmundry : Andhra Pradesh witnessed more boat mishaps after Tamil Nadu in South India. More than 600 people have lost lives in the boat mishaps across the state in the past 20 years. Ironically, most of the boat mishaps were took place in East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) say that in between 2001 and 2015 a total of 8775 incidents of boat mishaps were reported and 10,600 people died in Indi. The data also says that in Andhra Pradesh alone 490 people lost lives in the boat tragedies in the same period and in between 2016 and 2019 over 100 people died in the boat mishaps in Andhra Pradesh.

Four states_ Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh together accounted for more than 50 per cent of the deaths due to boat mishaps in the past one and half-decade. Uttar Pradesh topped with 1753 deaths followed by 1665 in Madhya Pradesh and 1216 in Bihar.

Tamil Nadu topped with 630 deaths in South India followed by Andhra Pradesh with 493 deaths, 447 in Karnataka, 386 in Odisha and 360 in Kerala.

Twenty-one persons drowned in the Krishna on November 12, 2017, when a boat carrying tourists to Pavitra Sangamam, near Ibrahimpatnam, on the outskirts of Vijayawada, capsized. Sixteen persons were rescued.

Thirteen persons drowned as a boat capsized in the YT Cheruvu village tank in Gooty Mandal of Anantapur in 2017.

Nineteen persons drowned when a boat overturned in the Godavari near Manturu village in East Godavari district in May 2018. Seventeen persons survived.

Seven people drowned when a boat carrying 31 people, most of them were students, capsized in the Godavari River near Pasuvula Lanka village of East Godavari district on July 2018.

A senior police officer said that the nexus between political leaders and boat operators in the state was the major reason for the majority of the private boat operators don’t follow the rules prescribed by the Indian Registration of Shipping and Inland Vessels Act, 1917.

Despite frequent boat accidents in the Godavari and Krishna rivers claiming several lives, no precautionary measures are being taken to prevent them.