A 65-year-old woman and her two sons died of suspected suffocation after entering a newly constructed underground water tank one by one in an apparent rescue attempt at their home in Haldwani’s Gulapar area on Tuesday evening, police said. The fourth man who entered the tank to rescue them also lost consciousness but survived.
However, officers said the exact cause of death would be confirmed after a post-mortem.
Police said the incident occurred when 46-year-old Dharmendra Bisht entered the underground tank of his house to dismantle its seal using a ladder. When he did not return for some time, his younger brother, Khushal Singh, 40, entered the tank to rescue him, but he also lost consciousness. Their mother, Saraswati Devi, 65, then entered the tank to check on her sons and also fell unconscious.
Farmer Bhoj Ram, who was working on the family’s farmland near the tank, raised an alarm and entered the tank in an attempt to rescue the three, but he too lost consciousness.
Upon hearing the noise, the villagers rushed to the scene, broke part of the concrete cover of the tank, and were able to get all four people out. Bhoj Ram regained consciousness, while doctors declared Dharmendra, Khushal and Saraswati, who were rushed to Sushila Tiwari Hospital (STH) in Haldwani in Uttarakhand, dead on arrival.
Station House Officer (SHO) of Chorgalia police station, Tara Singh Rana, said the three apparently died of suffocation, but the exact cause will be confirmed after an autopsy on Wednesday.
