‘Lost my 2 sons’: 21 dead in Surat floods, police say toll likely to rise

The horrors of the 2006 floods returned to Surat with bodies of people who had gone missing following record rainfall earlier this week began to surface when the floodwaters started receding.

According to Surat city police, at least 21 persons died on Tuesday and Wednesday with 11 bodies recovered on a single day from the creek area including that of two brothers and a one-and-half-year-old girl.

Police said the numbers could rise.

Amir Ansari, a resident of Sanjarnagar in Unn area of the city, lost his two sons  – Harun (21) and Faruk (18) in the floods. Their residential society was submerged and the brothers had gone missing while returning from work on Wednesday night.

“Amir tried to contact them on their phones, but it kept getting disconnected after which he informed the Sachin police station,” said police.  Police had carried out a search operation in residential societies near Sanjarnagar, but could not locate them. The bodies of Ansari brothers were found on Wednesday from the neighbouring society, floating in the flood waters.

Ansari, a property broker, told The Indian Express, “Around 6 pm on July 7, my sons told me that they are returning  home along with their colleague Hussain Pathan, who is also a resident of Unn. The trio reached Hussain’s house in Tirupatinagar at 7.30 pm. The creek water was flowing up to six feet high. Faruk called me up at 7.30 pm after reaching Hussain house and told me that they are proceeding to our house. I told them to wait there for some time and come after the water receded, but they refused. As they did not turn up till 9 pm, I called Hussain, who replied that Faruk and Harun had left a couple of hours before. I called the police, who had also carried out a search operation in the night, but they failed to locate them. The bodies were discovered on Wednesday afternoon from the Patia area.”

“I have lost my two grown up children and I am deeply pained. Harun got engaged and he was to get married next year,” an inconsolable Ansari said.

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Both Harun and Faruk were working in a factory in Sachin GIDC.

In another incident, Dindoli police teams found three bodies at Gurudutt point on Wednesday evening and sent them to New Civil Hospital.

The deceased have been identified as Sandesh Rajbhar (44), a resident of Chitrakut society, and Pranay Navin Thakur (18), a resident of Radhakrishna society, both in Dindoli. Another person, aged around 25, is yet to be identified.

Dindoli police inspector P L Vaghela said, “One more body was recovered from Sainagar near Kavita Medical Store. The deceased has been identified as Prashant Kapre (58), a resident of Mahadev Nagar, Dindoli. All these four people died of drowning in the creek floods.”

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Amroli police have recovered the body of a one-and-half-year old girl, Laxmi Mandal, who was washed away in Tapi River near Dev Narayan Temple while playing near her house on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, police recovered the bodies of two minors, drowned in the Pandesara area in separate incidents. The deceased have been identified as Satyam Shrinivas (16), a resident of Sandeepnagar in Pandesara, and Anubhav Dharmendra Kori (9), a resident of Janakpuri Society, Pandesara.  While the body of Shrinivas was recovered from the banks of Bhedwad creek, Anubhav was found dead near Avirbhav Society in Pandesara. Pandesara police inspector K D Jadeja said, “In our police station area, two bodies were discovered on Wednesday on the banks of Bhedwad creek. We have registered an accidental death complaint. The doctors who conducted the post-mortem said that the cause of death was drowning.”

Other drowning deaths have also been reported from Althan, Punagam and Sachin police station areas.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, along with Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi and Union Minister C R Patil, held a meeting at the integrated command and control center in Surat’s Althan to review the flood situation caused by heavy rainfall.

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In a post on X, the CM said, “To prevent the recurring flood situation in Surat, the state government will allocate Rs 500 crore for long-term planning and the permanent resolution of the issue through creek development.” “Instructions were given to officials to ensure all departments of the administration coordinate with each other to carry out their duties effectively and to prepare a firm plan to prevent creek flooding for future planning,” he added.