Close on the heels of the boat tragedy in the Godavari, one person died and 11 others, most of them children, were feared drowned when they went for a picnic in two country boats in the Tandava reservoir in Golugonda mandal in the district on Sunday.
Two persons – Pokala Suribabu, 18, and Ch. Sai, 10 — had a miraculous escape. The group, which came to attend the village festival at Ammapeta, set off in two basket-shaped boats (called putti in local parlance) by tying one another with a rope. The tragedy occurred when all the persons shifted to one ‘putti’ after spotting a snake coming towards them. The overcrowded putti sank while Suribabu and Sai survived by clinging to the other ‘putti’.