Dozens missing after ferry capsizes in India's Ganges river

One person died and nearly 40 people are unaccounted for, including women and children who were on their way to work in the fields

Boats are moored on the banks of the Ganges River in Patna, Bihar, India, on Thursday, October 22, 2020. Bloomberg

At least one person died and dozens were missing after a passenger boat capsized on India's Ganges river in eastern Bihar state on Thursday.

More than 50 people, including women and children, were aboard the ferry when it capsized while crossing the river in the Gopalpur area.

Nine people swam to safety while four teams of rescue workers and divers tried to trace nearly 40 people missing after the boat capsized, emergency and police officials said.

"The incident happened between 8.30 and 9am when about 50 persons, mainly women and children, were crossing the river to work in corn fields," Kunal Anand, a local police officer, told The National.

He said many of the missing passengers were children accompanying their mothers to work on farms.

Renu Devi, a survivor, said the boat was more crowded than reported. He said “there were 100 people on the boat".

He said the vessel "started drowning suddenly”.

According to senior police officer Swapna Ji Meshram, "the initial investigation suggested that the boat capsized after passengers suddenly started moving towards one side of the ferry, which overturned it".

Police said the boat was not overloaded, although it carried motorbikes and bicycles as well.

Bihar suffers boat capsizes every year, particularly during this season when water levels rise in rivers after the monsoon rainfall.

The state has a large network of rivers, including the Ganges, where unauthorised private operators use wooden boats to transport passengers for low fees without any government oversight. The vessels often lack any safety measures, such as life jackets or periodic maintenance checks.

At least 34 people drowned in Bihar after three boats capsized after a storm in August this year.

In a similar incident in 2017, dozens of people were killed after their boat capsized in a river as they returned from a kite festival.

The state is also one of the poorest in the country, with rickety road infrastructure that forces people to use often ramshackle and overloaded ferries to reach their destinations.