One dead in boat capsize

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’.