It being a Sunday and only two days to go for the end of the festival of Krishna, the pushkar ghats along the river course in Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda were filled with massive crowds. The day also witnessed a tragedy: an eight-year-old boy from Hyderabad, Harthik, drowned in the river while taking the dip far away from the ghat at Kacharajupalli in Chandampet mandal of Nalgonda district.
A Hyderabad-based child rights organisation alleged that pits caused by illegal digging in the river bed led to the tragedy. The national highway in Mahabubnagar had traffic jam at Jadcherla and Bhootpur as hundreds of vehicles were headed for the ghats in the district.
Vehicles came to a halt for two km at Bhootpur.
The police diverted traffic from Jadcherla to ghats at Kollapur and Somasila in view of heavy rush at Beechupalli which was the biggest attraction to pilgrims.
Mahabubnagar Joint Collector M. Ramkishan said in a release that about 6.5 lakh persons took the dip at Beechupalli during the day.
The pilgrims numbered about 35 lakh in the entire district.
A government release said the flow of pilgrims at Beechupalli commenced at 6 a.m. and all the ghats, by noon, had a sea of humanity. Trains ferrying the pilgrims also ran packed.
