Two drown, four missing as coracle capsizes at Hogenakkal Falls in Tamil Nadu

COIMBATORE: A fun trip for a family from Chennai to Hogenakkal Falls turned tragic after a coracle they were travelling in capsized in the Cauvery river on Sunday afternoon, leaving two of them dead and four others missing. Boatmen rescued three others.
Police and rescue workers fished out the bodies of a 55-year-old woman and a three-year-old child.The deceased had been identified as Gowri of West Mambalam in Chennai and her grandson Darshan, said J Loganathan, superintendent of police, Dharmapuri.
They were searching for Gowri’s husband Krishnamoorthy, 60, their son Ranjith, 35, and Ranjith’s wife Gokila, 30, and Ranjith’s daughter Suvetha (10 months).
The rescued have been identified as Krishnamoorthy’s son in-law Rajesh, 30, Rajesh’s wife Gomathi, 29, and their son Sachin, 6. Darshan was also the son of the Rajesh–Gomathi couple.
“The family from Chennai took a coracle ride in the afternoon. The boat belonged to Murugesh. They all came to one side of the coracle to take photos, causing the boat to topple,” said V Muttiah, a boatman, who was eyewitness to the tragedy.
G Anandhan and Sivalingam, two other boatmen who were just behind the ill-fated coracle, rescued Rajesh, Gomathi, and Sachin.
“I was riding right behind them and there were four people on my boat. When I saw the boat topple, we somehow rescued three of them,” said G Anandhan.
"They were all wearing their life-jackets but as the coracle was over them, they might have drowned," added Anandhan.
The coracle is a basket-like lightweight boat made of bamboo.