Parents and friends of Advaitha Verma, 18, who drowned last month at Pavana allege negligence, lack of safety measures and unavailability of rescue teams at the popular camping site.
Advaitha Verma, 18, BBA second year student at Symbiosis, who had gone for an outing to Pavana dam backwaters in Maval taluka with a group of friends, drowned on June 23. His body was recovered by a search team late the same night.
Father, Sudesh Verma, lawyer and senior BJP leader says negligence and lack of safety measures at a popular tourist site like Pavana is shocking. “It’s a tourist place where he drowned. It’s a camping site that a lot of people visit. But are there arrangements as precautionary measures in case of any eventuality? Life boat or life jackets, ropes or floating, nothing was there.”
“The government makes revenue from tourism. There are so many eateries and hotels here. So if after calling for help, there is no one who can rescue a child, of course there is negligence. Police told Adwait’s friends that there were no rescue teams on Sunday. The state cannot abdicate itself from its responsibility like this. Just by putting up a board, you cannot say you have done your duty. There are many dams in the country which are well barricaded, so even if someone wants to go, they can not. Earlier too incidents have happened here, this is not the first case,” said Sudesh.
Advaitha’s mother Renu Kaul Verma, publisher and former journalist, expects there should be some patrolling at the spot, as this is not a one off mishap. “We hear there are drownings every month so we are planning to raise safety awareness campaigns. Not just drownings, car crashes, drugs etc, so that there are no further mishaps. Let’s see how far we succeed. We have lost our child. We do not want more parents to lose their children,” said Renu.
Meet, one of the friends who accompanied Advaitha on the site, said, “It started with seeing a story of college students at Pavana, and we made a plan to go, rented a car and reached there. We were trying to find a peaceful spot.”
Another friend, Janya said, “Thay day when we went, there were several people. We went into the water and it was not that deep initially, then suddenly something happened. We panicked and one of us called the police right there and then, we called the crowd also.”
But all the friends maintain that the police and rescue team came very late. “Police took 45 minutes to an hour to arrive and the rescue team took over two hours. There were some locals around, so after the incident a large crowd formed there at that time itself. But no one stepped into the water as they were also scared and didn’t know how to swim. “Initially they said the rescue team would come the next day, but we pursued them a lot so they came that day,” said Janya.
“When the police came they said the rescue team was on a holiday and that is what triggered us the most. How can the rescue team be on holiday?” said Meet. Sudesh points out that since it was a Sunday when more tourists flock to the spot, how can the rescue team not be available on the weekend.
“When the police came, they just made the report, they did not bother to check the water. They said to come after two days, when the body would surface eventually,” said Meet.
Meet and Janya maintain they didn’t see any warning signs instructing them not to step into the water that day. But on their visit to the spot on July 20, they noticed a sign placed at the parking spot. They suspect signs have been put up recently after the incident.
Sudesh also points to no display of emergency numbers at the site. “If you put up a board warning people to not enter water, there should be a helpline number in different languages on the board of rescuers or expert divers,” said Sudesh.
He said, “Drunk driving is a crime, but still police check while people are driving if they are under the influence of alcohol, because prevention is also the job of the police. There is gross negligence. In our country nobody can sue for negligence, but somebody has to take an initiative.”
Despite repeated attempts, the Lonavla police department remained unavailable for comments.
Sudesh also points to no display of emergency numbers at the site. “If you put up a board warning people to not enter water, there should be a helpline number in different languages on the board of rescuers or expert divers,” said Sudesh.
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