Astaranga Beach Claims Lives
Astaranga’s Jahania beach in Puri district, once a place of scenic beauty and joy, is now turning into a death trap for tourists. Over the past nine years, the beach has claimed 17 lives due to drowning, yet the administration remains indifferent. Despite its popularity as a picnic destination and its contribution to the region’s economic development, the area lacks even basic safety measures like lifeguards or warning signs. This negligence has transformed the beach from a site of recreation into a place of recurring tragedy.
Every year, especially during the peak picnic season between December and January, the beach becomes crowded with visitors. However, many of them, particularly engineering students, college youth, and intoxicated or unruly young people, fall victim to the sea due to a lack of caution and safety awareness. Drowning incidents are common, and in addition to the 17 lives lost, over 40 individuals have been seriously injured over the years.
Most of the deaths have occurred near Pir Jahania, Debi Muhana, and Keluni Muhana. Tourists, unaware of the dangers, often venture into the sea for bathing, not realizing that even a moment of carelessness can invite disaster. The absence of lifeguards and any visible warning signs in sensitive spots further aggravates the situation. Despite multiple tragedies, neither the local nor the district administration has implemented any meaningful solutions, causing public trust in governance to erode.
Several past incidents underscore the gravity of the issue. In January 2015, a student of Sri Ganesh ITI in Astaranga drowned and two others were injured. In January 2016, four youths from Cuttack drowned, resulting in two deaths and two injuries. In January 2017, a youth named Ujjayini from Vaishali, Bihar, lost his life and three others were injured. Later that month, another youth from Bihar, Mohammad Mozail, drowned. In December of the same year, Alok Ranjan Mohanty from Sambalpur died. Also in December 2017, Pratyuk Mahapatra, a student from St. Xavier’s School in Bhubaneswar, lost his life at the beach. In January 2019, three students from Silicon Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar drowned, with two others severely injured. Recently, on January 23rd, three individuals from Jagatsinghpur district were swept away by the sea, leaving two dead and one injured.
These incidents also include cases of boat capsizing near Debi Muhana and drowning near Keluni Muhana. Despite this ongoing loss of life, there has been no consistent effort by the authorities to deploy safety infrastructure or enforce precautions. Locals now view the beach not as a spot of fun and leisure, but as a place of danger and death.
Raising concern over the growing number of casualties, environmentalist and national award recipient Soumyaranjan Biswal, the convenor of Odisha Paryabaran Suraksha Abhijan, has filed an official complaint during the recent block-level public hearing in Astaranga. He has demanded the immediate deployment of lifeguards at the beach to prevent further tragedies.
