The body of one of the two persons missing after a ferry mishap on September 8 was recovered downstream in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve on Saturday.
The staff of the tiger reserve found the body, identified as that of Indreswar Bora, near the Umatumuni island in the Brahmaputra river. The island falls in the Biswanath Range of the tiger reserve.
Rescue officials said the search for the other missing person, Bikramjit Baruah, was on.
According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, there were 90 passengers on the ill-fated Maa Kamala , a passenger ferry that sank after colliding with a larger ferry off Neamatighat in the Jorhat district. While 87 people either swam to safety or were rescued on the day of the accident, a teacher named Parimita Das died on the way to the hospital.
“The body of the man was identified from the documents found in a bag,” a Forest Department official said.
The single-engine ferry that sank was headed for Neamatighat from Kamalabari ferry point in Majuli, an ‘island’ district and Assembly constituency represented by Ports and Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Like most other ferries on the Brahmaputra and other rivers of Assam, it was operating without any adherence to safety guidelines.
The State government suspended three Inland Water Transport Department officials after the mishap and banned the plying of all single-engine boats while offering subsidised loans to ferry operators to upgrade their vessels with marine engines and other safety measures.
