In northwest Delhi’s Haiderpur canal, two young boys, aged nine and thirteen, lost their lives in a tragic drowning incident that has left the local community devastated. The boys, Aniket and Krishan Kumar, were neighbours living near the Ayurvedic Hospital in the Shalimar Bagh area. On Sunday afternoon, around four o’clock, they went to the canal, which had swollen with strong currents after recent heavy rains. What could have been an innocent swim turned deadly when the boys were swept away by the currents.
Both children’s families were living hand to mouth. Their fathers are daily wage labourers who were out working when the disaster happened. The boys’ mothers had died when they were kids years ago, and they were being brought up by their fathers alone. This tragedy has made the loss even more painful, as the children were already maturing up without their mothers. When the fathers came home late in the night, the boys were nowhere to be found. Residents raised an alarm around nine to ten at night, by which time valuable hours had been lost. Locals and police initiated rescue operations, but the boys were finally dragged out of the water dead. They were taken to BJRM Hospital, where they were declared dead upon arrival.
The families are also filled with anger and regret over the loss. Relatives explained that if someone had intervened sooner, the children might have been saved. Aniket’s aunt, Premlata, regretted that he was the youngest of three brothers, a brilliant and well-mannered boy with a smiling nature. For her, it was not just loss of a child but also loss of the hopes the family had constructed around him. The relatives of Krishan Kumar expressed similar grief, telling about how the boys were best friends and about how fate so brutally snatched them together.’
The event also indicates a deeper issue within the area. The Haiderpur canal has been identified by residents as extremely unsafe for children, but no warning signs or safety precautions are observed. With water levels in the canal increasing after rains and no guard to limit access, children are readily tempted to swim where the area appears to be a recreational zone but is actually a death trap. Only about a week ago, another child had drowned in the very same canal, and this is the second such tragedy in the matter of days. Locals term the recurring incidents an indication of the neglectfulness of authorities, who have not guarded the area even though they know its risks.
Police have filed a case and are probing the circumstances of the deaths, gathering statements from relatives and witnesses. For the bereaved families, though, the investigation means little. What is left is a feeling of immense loss, anger, and the nagging realization that the tragedy would have been avoided if more robust safety measures and quicker intervention had existed.
