Eight teenagers drown in Godavari river; seven bodies found so far

Eight teenagers drowned in the Godavari river in Kamini Lanka island of Mummidivaram mandal (block) in Andhra Pradesh’s Dr. BR Ambedkar Konaseema district on Monday, the police said, adding that rescue teams could retrieve the bodies of only seven of them by Tuesday evening.

Amalapuram deputy superintendent of police TSRK Prasad said a group of 11 teenagers, all in the age group of 13-20 years, from Kakinada, Ramachandrapuram and Mandapeta had come to attend a family function at Sherilanka village in K Gangavaram mandal on Monday.

“In the evening, they went to the Godavari river at Kaminilanka to take a bath. As they could not gauge the depth of the river, they drowned,” he said.

While three of them managed to swim back to the riverbank, the remaining eight went missing. “The boys who swam back to the shore alerted the locals, who immediately informed the police,” the DSP said.

The police and personnel from the National Disaster Response Force carried out the search operation.

The teens were identified as Sabbati Kranti (19), Sabbati Paul (18), Ellamarti Sai (18), Tathipudi Nitish (18) from Kakinada, Rohith (18) from Mandapeta, among others.

By Tuesday evening, the rescue teams retrieved the bodies of seven boys, except Sabbati Kranti. “We hope to retrieve the eighth body soon,” the police official said, adding that the retrieved bodies were sent to Mummudivaram Primary Health Centre for post-mortem.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu directed Konaseema district collector Mahesh Kumar Ravirala and superintendent of police B Krishna Rao to visit the spot and supervise the rescue efforts.

Naidu also issued strict instructions to officials to install warning boards at all water bodies across the state, and ordered the identification of hazardous locations, such as ponds and lakes, through the village and ward secretariat staff, and the immediate installation of cautionary signage.

The CM stressed that district collectors must enforce these measures, and warned of harsh steps against negligence or failure to comply.