Within seconds…: Survivors recount horror | Lucknow News

Lucknow: “We kept telling the boatman — it’s getting dark, please hurry, brother. But he didn’t listen. He set off in the dark… there was a big tree in the water, and the boat overturned. I survived, but my five-year-old granddaughter and two grandsons drowned before my eyes,” said Sonapati, her voice trembling as she lay on a hospital bed in Bahraich, still drenched in fear and sorrow.Her eyes welled up as she relived the nightmarish scene — the screams, the swirling current, and the sight of children disappearing beneath the waves.Another survivor, Ram Milan (52), who was rescued by villagers downstream, said, “The boat was shaking badly, but no one thought it would overturn. We shouted for help when it started tilting, but within seconds, everything went dark. People were screaming, trying to grab hold of anything that would float.”Kamla Devi (40), who lost her sister and niece in the accident, could barely speak. “My sister was holding her daughter tight. I saw them for the last time when the boat went under. After that, only cries were left in the air,” she said before breaking down.According to eyewitnesses, the boat was overloaded and the river’s current unusually strong due to continuous rainfall in Nepal’s Bardiya hills. “We begged him to wait till morning,” said Pramod Yadav (35), another villager from Bharatpur. “But the boatman insisted he could manage. Within minutes, the river swallowed half the boat.”