Mother and son in one life jacket among Jabalpur boat capsizing victims

The Narmada Queen — carrying around what locals estimate was at least 43 people — capsized at approximately 6.13pm.

At around 5.30pm on Thursday, Treeza Chauhan (36) received a video call from her sister Merina — hair blowing in the wind, smiling, turning the camera to show Treeza the boat she was aboard on Bargi Dam reservoir, 35km from Jabalpur.

Rescue personnel and locals gather as an excavator retrieves the wreckage of a cruise boat that capsized, in the Bargi Dam reservoir. (ANI Video Grab)

“Look how beautiful this is, Treeza… look at the dam, look at the water!”

The next call came at 6.07pm. “She was hysterical. She was shouting, crying that they were drowning. She asked me to pray for them. She kept saying ‘save us, save us’ and then the call got disconnected. I called back multiple times but no one took my calls... When she called me around 5.30 pm, no one was wearing life jackets, which was shocking for me but I didn’t say anything because she looked very happy showing me the views,” Treeza said, breaking down at her parents’ house in Delhi Cantt. on Friday afternoon.

The Narmada Queen — carrying around what locals estimate was at least 43 people — capsized at approximately 6.13pm.

Merina (39) was on board with her parents Julius (70) and Madhu Massey (62), her husband Pradeep Kumar Verma (39), their daughter Siya (14) and son Trishan (4). Merina, her mother Madhu and her son Trishan did not survive.

As the boat was battered by waves, Merina held on to Trishan while Pradeep, who knew how to swim, stayed with their daughter Siya, said Julius. When rescuers pulled Merina and Trishan from the water on Friday, they were still together — mother and son inside the same life-jacket, locked in an embrace.

Pradeep told HT: “As storm winds battered the vessel, water rushed in. A man and I broke the lock to get life jackets. My father-in-law grabbed a tube and reached the river bank. My daughter and I wore jackets and were saved with ropes. The last I saw was Merina helping Trishan wear his jacket when the boat capsized. She hugged him inside hers. I lost everything in this tragedy.”

Divers from Agra, veterans of many rescues, wept at what they found. “We saw a body floating near the wreckage. It wouldn’t move. When we overturned it, everyone cried... the way mother and son clutched each other showed how desperately she tried to save him,” one diver told reporters. Siya said: “I saw them alive, and now I am seeing their bodies.”

Back in Delhi, Treeza is still trying to make sense of it. “I found out by 7.30 pm on Thursday that my mother had died… I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know about the others for a while. It was only on Friday morning that I came to know that my sister and nephew too had drowned.”

Julius is a retired army officer; Madhu and Merina were homemakers; Pradeep works in the media. Trishan had just started school on April 6. Siya is in class 8. The family of six had left Delhi on Tuesday to attend the housewarming of Pradeep’s brother in Jabalpur, and decided to take the boat ride on Thursday before returning home on Saturday.

“The children, especially Trishan, were excited to sit on a cruise boat… We bought tickets and were enjoying the ride when suddenly the weather turned… I have lost everything,” Pradeep said.