A pall of gloom hung over the house of the Acharyas here on Wednesday following the death of their nine-year-old daughter Nidhi Acharya, a class four student, who was washed away in the floods due to heavy rain just about a kilometre from the house when she was returning on the bicycle being ridden by her elder sister Nisha Acharya here on Tuesday evening.
Nidhi Acharya’s body was traced in the shrubs near the place where she drowned on Wednesday. The body was brought home after the post-mortem. Nidhi Acharya’s parents, Asha Acharya and Umesh Acharya, were inconsolable. So was Nisha Acharya. Ms. Asha Acharya was crying out, saying, “Bring back my baby, bring back my Nidhi. I want my child back.” Relatives and neighbours tried to console them. The 14-year-old Nisha Acharya cried: “I want my little sister back with me.”
When Ms. Asha Acharya was going around the body as part of religious rituals, she said: “Come back my child. You have to go to school.” Mr. Umesh Acharya kissed Nidhi Acharya’s face. It was a heart rending scene to see both parents and Nisha Acharya hugging one another and crying. Baby Poojary, who was an eye-witness to the tragedy and whose house is about 500 metres away from the house of the Acharyas, said that she had just come out of the house after having coffee and she saw the bicycle being carried away in the floods between 5 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. on Tuesday amid heavy rain. The bicycle had got off the narrow concrete road and both the Nidhi Acharya and Nisha Acharya were being carried away by the floods into the low-lying area. “Nisha Acharya was making all efforts to save Nidhi Acharya. Finally, she lost Nidhi Acharya,” she said.
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Soon after seeing it, Ms. Poojary shouted for help. Neighbours, including Satish Shetty, and others came onto the scene. “I tried to get into the water in the fields, but after a few steps it was waist deep. But neighbours managed to rescue Nisha Acharya. However, by then Nidhi Acharya had gone out of reach,” she said.
“As soon as Nidhi Acharya was rescued, we took her to our house. She was dazed by the turn of events. It is a tragedy,” Ms. Poojary recalled.