Three persons of same family drowned in Kaup beach

Padubidri: Five persons of a family drowned in the water at Kaup beach on Saturday October 25. Locals rescued two persons. Later dead body of one person was recovered and search is on for the remaining bodies. A group of 12 people of one family from Karkala visited Kaup beach on Saturday evening. Family members Harishchandra, Prajwal, Jagadish Rao and Sunil went for swimming. In an adventurist move they swam very far away from the shore. Soon they were drowned in the water. 

Locals jumped into the sea to save the lives and they managed to rescue Prajwal and Harishchandra. But others were lost in the water. After searching for one hour body of Jagadish Rao (36) was found to the north of Kaup light house. Search for the remaining bodies is on.

Jagadish Rao was the resident of Ummarbettu and was working in a photo lamination shop. A father of two Jagadish Rao’s dead body was floating on the water near the light house. Chandan, a native of Bangalore noticed the body while he was swimming near the light house. He pulled the body to the shore and informed the others. Harishchandra and Prajwal both students of SSLC were admitted to Prashanth hospital in Kaup.

Harsha (14) who is still missing is the only son of Harishchandra and Bhagirathi and was a high school student in an English medium school in Bangalore. The family came to Mangalore to celebrate Diwali and were about to leave to Bangalore on Sunday morning. But as fate had it Harsha was drowned in the water  and his mother still in mental shock. Another person Sunil (32) who was also drowned in the water was working in Vishnumurthy Garage in Malpe.

Locals blame authorities for their failure in installing any safety measures in the beach. Lakhs of rupees had been spent on developing Kaup beach. But it lacks safety measures. In a period of one year more than ten tragedies had happened in the beach. Beach friends committee and locals had many times urged the authorities and local representatives to install some safety measures in the beach. But all the cries have fallen on deaf ears. Neither government nor district administration has taken any action to upgrade the safety measurements in the beach.  As for the present incident a case has been filed at Kaup police station.

Report and photos by: Balakrishna Poojary Ucchila.

• 
• 
• 
• 
•