Ganpati festivities culminated on Sunday with lakhs of devotees bidding farewell to the adorable elephant-headed god they consecrated and worshipped for ten days, while at least nine persons drowned and 12 were missing in various incidents related to the immersion of idols in Maharashtra. These incidents were reported from Thane, Pune, Nanded, Nashik, Jalgaon, Washim, Palghar and Amravati districts, officials told the news agency PTI on Sunday. In Pune district, five persons were swept away in different water bodies in three separate incidents, an official said.
"Two men were swept away in Bhama river at Waki Khurd and one at Shell Pimpalgaon. Another person slipped into a well at Birwadi in the rural part of the district. A 45-year-old man was swept away at Khed," the Pune official said.
Bodies of three persons were recovered, he added. Three persons were swept away in a river in Gandegaon in Nanded district, one of whom was rescued some time later, a local official said. Search was on for the other two, Nanded police said.
Similar incidents took place in Sinnar and Kalwan areas of Nashik district. "Five persons were swept away in Nashik. The bodies of two persons have been recovered, while efforts are on to trace the others," the official said.
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Three persons were swept away in Jalgaon in separate incidents, the official said. Three persons from Mundewadi in Thane's Shahapur taluka were swept away in the strong currents of the Bhargavi river near a dam. They were returning after immersing a Ganpati idol, Shahapur Tehsildar Parmeshwar Kasule said.
He identified the persons as Datta Lote, Pratip Munde and Kuldeep Jakare. "The bodies of Lote and Munde have been retrieved. The search for Jakare is underway," the tehsildar said.
In Palghar district, three men who were swept away in a creek during Ganpati idol immersion were saved with the help of a Ro-Ro boat after a quick alert from maritime authorities, officials said on Sunday.
The incident took place at around 3 pm on Saturday at Narangi jetty in Virar (West), they said. Two persons drowned in Washim district, a local official said, adding the body of one of them has been recovered.
One man drowned in Amravati, as per police. His body was retrieved by the disaster management team. In Mumbai city, where immersion processions extend several hours, a man died of electrocution and five other individuals sustained injuries, civic officials said.
The incident occurred on Khairani Road in the Sakinaka area on Sunday morning when a Ganesh idol came into contact with a hanging electric wire. Amid continuous rainfall in Maharashtra, state disaster response teams and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel have been deployed, officials said.
In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, two teenage boys drowned after falling into a stream during the immersion of an idol of Lord Ganesh in Raisen district. The boys drowned after falling into a stream in Gatkheda village on Saturday night, police said.