The bodies of two more children were recovered from Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur, officials said on Saturday, taking the death toll in to 11.
The bodies of a four-year-old child and eight women had been recovered by Friday, after the cruise boat capsized the previous evening amid bad weather.
The children whose bodies were recovered on Saturday were six- and five-year-old boys. The mothers of both had already been found dead. The father and cousin of one of the boys — the five-year-old — remain missing.
The five-year-old and his family were from . His father, Kamaraj, who was employed at an ordnance factory, had been working in Jabalpur for several years. His relatives from Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur district had come to visit him, and the family had gone on an outing on Thursday when the tragedy occurred.
Meanwhile, the captain of the cruise boat, Mahesh Patel, expressed regret over the incident, saying, “I haven’t eaten or slept in three days. I only see those children.”
Patel is being investigated by a high-level committee set up by the district administration to probe safety violations and other lapses that may have led to the deaths. The inquiry is focused on safety protocols followed aboard the cruise boat, including whether life jackets were provided to passengers.
Patel said that when the storm struck, he had “instructed the cruise staff to give everyone life jackets”.
“Some people were dancing downstairs. My staff told me they were not wearing life jackets. I went and told them that the weather had worsened and they should wear them,” he said.
Survivors said life jackets were never distributed at the start of the journey and remained packed, some still sealed in bundles, until the situation had already begun to spiral out of control. Patel denied allegations that he was the first to abandon the vessel and claimed he “managed to pull out three or four children before others reached the site”.
The immediate trigger for the tragedy during Thursday evening’s cruise in the Bargi Dam reservoir area on the Narmada was a sudden and violent storm. At around 6 pm, when the boat neared Khamaria island, weather conditions worsened sharply. High-velocity winds churned the reservoir into rough waters.
Eyewitnesses on the banks began shouting and signalling to the operator to turn back, but survivors say those warnings were ignored.
