Ishita's grandmother cradles her body at Khunti Sadar Hospital on Sunday as her cousins look on. Telegraph picture
A four-year-old girl from Ranchi drowned in the Panchghagh Falls in Khunti, 55km from the state capital, on Sunday morning while her parents were busy clicking photographs.
The body of Ishita Toppo, trapped between rocks in the gorge, was recovered after more than an hour's concerted efforts. Police have registered an unnatural death case.
Sources said the child and her extended family - parents, two cousins and grandmother, all residents of Pahantoli in Kokar - had accompanied her aunt who was appearing for Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission exam at a centre in Khunti. The family decided to spend time at the waterfall in Murhu, 14km from the district headquarters, till the exam got over.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident took place around 8.30am when a playful Ishita got separated from her father Shashi Shekhar Toppo, a contract employee of Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), and others.
Murhu thana OC Arun Dubey said the parents were inattentive towards the little girl. 'They were clicking photographs with mobile phones,' he said.
Witnesses said when the family noticed the child was missing, they called her name and searched everywhere, but in vain. Later, paryatak mitras (tourist guides appointed by JTDC) came to their rescue although it was too late.
'When an hour-long search in the vicinity yielded no result, the paryatak mitras diverted the flow of water from above using metal sheets. That is when they found the lifeless girl trapped in the gorge. The body was retrieved,' said a local resident who witnessed the operation.
OC Dubey said Panchghagh was among the less perilous waterfalls in the state. 'The incident is very unfortunate,' he added.
Incidents of drowning are alarmingly frequent across Jharkhand.
In Ranchi, two Class XII students of Marwari College and Surendranath Centenary School had drowned at Jonha Falls on August 10.
The duo had allegedly ignored warnings from paryatak mitras and ventured into the swirling waters just like a Greenland Public School student who had drowned at Hundru Falls, 2km away, on June 28.
