Puri: Eight passengers onboard a boat, which went missing in Chilika Lake in Satapada area under Brahmagiri tehsil in Odisha’s Puri district, were rescued after almost an hour on Wednesday.
According to sources, the tourists, including three children and two women, from Howrah took the boat for dolphin sighting at Chilika’s Magarguma. Bikram Jali (55), the boat operator, turned off the motor of the boat near an island inside the brackish water lake to facilitate dolphin sighting. He, however, slipped and fell into lake while restarting the motor to return to the shore. The driver-less boat then went missing.
After receiving an emergency call from the stranded tourists, police along with Fire Brigade personnel and local boat operators launched a rescue operation. The stranded tourists were then rescued and brought to the shore.
The boat operator, however, is yet to be traced. “A six member team of the Fire Brigade is still searching for the missing boatman,” said Satapada police outpost officer Ashok Gachhayat.
Some reports claimed that the boatman was heavily drunk at the time of the incident.
