Cuttack: A three-year-old boy drowned while trying to collect miniature boats from a pond at Karamuan village under Salepur block in Odisha’s Cuttack district.
The deceased has been identified as son of Pradipta Bhoi.
According to sources, the boy is suspected to have slipped into the deep water while attempting to collect the miniature boats set afloat during ‘Boita Bandana’ on the auspicious occasion of Kartika Purnima. He was later rescued by villagers and then rushed by family members to community health centre at Salipur. However, doctors there declared him brought dead.
Villages said that the pond bug by the panchayat is in a bad state with no steps to enter the waterbody. A Plus II student drowned in the pond during uring Dola Purnima this year, they claimed.