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Nainital waterfall tragedy: Tourist’s body recovered
The body of one of the two tourists, who drowned at the bottom of a waterfall in Dhari area of Uttarakhand’s Nainital district, was recovered on Thursday, officials said. Eight people from Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur had gone to the Bhalugaad waterfall when when Zubair (25) and Shivam (20) drowned on Wednesday, said Dhari tehsildar Nawazish Khaliq.
The body of one of the two tourists, who drowned at the bottom of a waterfall in Dhari area of Uttarakhand’s Nainital district, was recovered on Thursday, officials said.
Eight people from Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur had gone to the Bhalugaad waterfall when when Zubair (25) and Shivam (20) drowned on Wednesday, said Dhari tehsildar Nawazish Khaliq. Dhari area, nearly 30 kms from the district headquarters, comes under revenue police.
A State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) team and police divers recovered the body of Shivam around 9.45 am, and search continued for the body of Zubair.
“Two of them (tourists) drowned at the base of the waterfall where the flow of the water was very fast. On Wednesday we had called local divers, but they were not been able to fish out the bodies. Then we called the SDRF team and divers of police from Nainital, who started searching for the bodies,” Khaliq said.
“Till Wednesday evening, we were not able to trace the bodies. So the search operation was resumed at 7.30 am this morning. The search team got oxygen equipment so that they could stay more underwater and fish out the bodies. Around 9.45am the team was able to recover the body of Shivam.”
The body was stuck in a deep cavity on the mountainside under the waterfall. “I hope we will be able to recover another body soon,” Khaliq said.
The tourists had come to Dhari from Mukteshwar. “Rest of the six tourists are safe,” the tehsildar said. “The parents of the two tourists who drowned have reached Dhari this morning.”
Shailesh Kumar, Nainital district coordinator for disaster management, said a seven-member SDRF team was rushed to the spot to search for the bodies. “We were informed about the incident by the local revenue police and accordingly the Dhari tehsildar has been coordinating the search operation,” Kumar said.
