Two boys drowned while bathing in the Suna River at Pundal village under Nilgiri police limits in Balasore district, creating a wave of grief across the locality.
The incident occurred around noon when five to six children from the village went to bathe at the temple ghat. After eating jamun fruits, they entered the river. Due to deep pits formed by illegal sand mining, Akash (11), son of Laxmidhar Mahalik, and Kartik (14), son of Pradeep Behera, slipped into deeper waters and drowned.
Other children alerted villagers, who searched for hours before recovering the bodies. Fire services, police, and ambulances reached the spot, and the boys were taken to Fakir Mohan Medical College in Remuna, where doctors declared them dead. Nilgiri police registered an unnatural death case, and the bodies were handed over to families after post-mortem at Balasore District Headquarters Hospital.
Akash was a Class VI student, while Kartik studied in Class IX. The tragedy occurred during summer vacation, when children often gather at the river. Villagers said illegal sand mining has made the riverbed dangerously deep, causing repeated accidents. They recalled that a girl from the village narrowly escaped drowning at the same ghat days earlier, while five to seven lives have already been lost in similar incidents.
