Panaji: Three Russian women tourists drowned when their boat capsized while on a dolphin-sighting excursion off a beach in Goa, police said yesterday. The tour operator has been booked for negligence and endangering lives.
A representative of the Russian consular services, however, asked how a boat could be allowed to venture into the sea when a cyclone warning was in place.
The incident took place around mid-day yesterday off the Betul beach in south Goa, 50km from Panaji.
A police official said the women were on a dolphin-sighting trip in a motor-powered boat when the vessel capsized after encountering a large wave.
“They were trapped under the boat and drowned because they could not breathe,” said a police official engaged in the rescue work.
Dolphin-sighting tours are common along popular Goa beaches where speedboats are used to chase down dolphins swimming in the sea more than a kilometre off the coastline.
The deceased women have not been identified. But post-mortem formalities were being conducted at the Hospicio government hospital in Margao, 35km from here.
Vikram Varma, a lawyer for the Russian consulate in Mumbai, alleged negligence on the part of the water sports operator who arranged the dolphin sighting trip, as meteorological officials and the state fishing department have directed people not to venture into the sea which was turbulent because of cyclone Nilofar which is passing along the state’s coastline.
NDRF ready as ‘Nilofar’ nears Gujarat coast
New Delhi: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) yesterday said it has deployed rescue and rehabilitation teams at various locations as cyclone Nilofar approaches the Gujarat coast.
NDRF teams are being deployed in vulnerable areas to mitigate the impact of the cyclonic storm, an official release said here. “The National Disaster Response Force is fully geared up for rescue operations in the wake of cyclonic storm ‘Nilofar’ in Arabian Sea along Gujarat coast,” it said.
Cyclone Nilofar which developed over the Arabian Sea is likely to make landfall in Kutch district of Gujarat Friday, packing winds of 100-110 kmph.
The release added that NDRF has alerted its three battalions situated at Vadodara (Gujarat), Pune (Maharashtra) and Bathinda (Punjab).
IANS
