Indore mishap: ‘Bodies kept coming out of stepwell for 24 hrs’

INDORE: An eerie silence pervades Patel Nagar in Indore where 36 devotees fell to their death after the roof of a 'bawdi' (stepwell) collapsed at a temple during a Ram Navami programme on Thursday.

The tragedy, which snuffed out the lives of 21 women and two children, is the worst in the city's history, according to those living in the temple's vicinity. Bodies kept coming out of the bawdi for 24 hours, they said.

Residents of Patel Nagar are yet to erase the memory of the moment when the slab constructed on top of the bawdi at the Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal temple collapsed in such a manner that most people could not get a chance to save themselves. Local resident Anil Bhatevra (65) told PTI on Friday, "The accident took place around 12 noon on Thursday. Some women rushed to me in shock and told me that many people had fallen into the bawdi."

"I live close to the temple, but there was so much silt in it that we did not hear any sound of people falling into it. We immediately reached the temple and pulled out 17-18 persons from the bawdi," he said.

The bawdi was completely open in 1972, said Bhatevara recalling his teen days when he used to take bath in it. He said, "But around 1983, this bawdi was covered. We complained eight to ten times to the administration against the covering of this bawdi. Once a sub-divisional magistrate also came with a bulldozer, but he returned. We don't know why this bawdi could not be freed from encroachment till the tragedy took place."

Bhatevra said action must be taken against the culprits of the tragedy, but he was most saddened that he lost people in his locality on Ram Navami when there was an atmosphere of religious fervour.

Kantibhai Patel, president of the Patel Nagar Residents Association, had said on Thursday that despite informing the administration, the ambulance and rescue team did not reach the spot for an hour.

After the accident, residents of Patel Nagar took the lead in the rescue, but they did not have enough resources and tools to pull out the victims from the bawdi, he said.

Their helplessness was evident in a video that went viral on social media. It shows a man trying to pull a woman out of the bawdi by tying her with a rope, but the rope snaps and the woman falls into the bawdi with a gut-wrenching shriek.

Several citizens gathered around the temple were also seen complaining that the administration could not accurately gauge the magnitude of the tragedy and decided to call in the Army for rescue only after hours had elapsed.

During the rescue operation that went on for nearly 24 hours, bodies kept coming out, said the locals, with the 36th body being that of Sunil Solanki (52).

Indore Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) Pawan Kumar Sharma told reporters that people will not be allowed to go near the bawdi for the next few days and police will guard the spot.

"We will remove the entire silt from this bawdi," he said. Then it will be closed forever by putting debris so that there is no possibility of any accident in it in future, he added.