Dozens, Mostly Children, Drown During a Hindu Festival

At least 46 people drowned in the eastern Indian state of Bihar as millions of Hindu devotees were celebrating a three-day festival for the well-being of children, officials said on Thursday.

Thirty-seven of those who died were children and seven were women, according to a statement released by the government of Bihar State.

As part of the annual festival Jivitputrika Vrat, celebrated mostly in northern India and some parts of Nepal, women fast for 24 hours and offer special prayers for the long life and good health of their children. During the hours when they are fasting, mothers travel to rivers and ponds in their neighborhood to bathe, sometimes accompanied by their children.

Across northern India during the festival, the authorities typically deploy police officers and divers to monitor devotees as they go into the water. It was unclear on Thursday what safety measures had been taken in Bihar.

Deadly stampedes during religious festivals are common in India, but widespread drownings are not. Officers of the Bihar Disaster Management Authority did not respond to repeated calls and messages. A local police officer said the deaths were reported from different rivers and ponds across the state.

Residents in Aurangabad District, where eight minors died in two villages while bathing in a pond, said that water levels in rivers and ponds had increased in recent days because of persistent rains.

The bodies of seven children there were retrieved as of late Wednesday, but one was still missing, according to Saurabh Kumar, a police officer.