Two MBBS students drown while bathing in Odisha waterfall

SAMBALPUR: Two final year MBBS students in VSS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Vimsar), Burla, drowned while bathing in Deojharan waterfall in Sambalpur district's Jujumura area on Saturday.

The deceased were identified as Monika Meena, 24, from Rajasthan, and Sandeep Puri, also 24, from New Delhi. Fire services personnel recovered their bodies and took them to the Jujumura community health centre, where they were declared brought dead. Police said six students, two boys and four girls, went to the waterfall on bikes.Sub-divisional police officer (Rairakhol), Prasanta Meher, said, "They were bathing in the waterfall when it rained heavily, and the volume of the stream increased.

Two of them drowned, and the other four came out. Fire-fighters and police fished out the bodies and rushed them to Jujumura CHC. They will be handed over to Vimsar authorities for postmortem."Inspector Sanjaya Routray of Jujumura police station said, "Tourists in the area and the remaining four students immediately informed the fire service officials and local police. The incident took place around 1.30pm. The girl's head struck a rock in the deep waters; that's why she was bleeding."

Fire officer Sudam Kisko said, "The stream is shallow in Deojharan. It's only 5-6ft deep. It's likely that they had climbed up to enjoy the beauty or click selfies. One of them slipped, and the other person tried to hold on. Hence, both of them fell in the water. The girl had head injuries; it is likely that she fell from a height and hit a rock."Pradeep Mohanty, dean of Vimsar, told TOI, "We are shocked by the news. Earlier, a notice was circulated among the students not to visit any water bodies during monsoon.

Despite strict warning not to visit these areas, either in Burla or in any other place, they did not abide by the rule. We are ascertaining who went to Deojharan. Another notice will be issued to students about imposition of penalty if they break the rules.

"Satyam Vatsya, a friend of Sandeep, said, "As the volume of the stream increased due to heavy rainfall, all six tried to save each other, but two of them got pulled into deep waters."Vimsar superintendent Lal Mohan Nayak said, "It's an extremely unfortunate incident. We had advised students to avoid visiting vulnerable spots during monsoon. However, as their exams had concluded on Friday, they went to a far-off waterfall, which sadly turned into a tragedy. Parents of one of the deceased students are expected to arrive Saturday night and the others by Sunday, after which the post-mortem will be conducted and bodies will be handed over to them.

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