In a tragic accident this morning at Huishu village, a 7 year old boy slipped from an irrigation canal into the raging Huishu river and drowned. The deceased minor is identified as Tuisak Huishuwo s/o Paomi Huishuwo of Huishu village.
The deceased, along with his parents and other family members (all minors) were returning from their paddy field on a treacherous path along an irrigation canal to cross over to the other side of the river when the mishap happened. The water level of the river had risen considerably in the last few days due to the incessant rains in the state. Owing to this, the family had to walk the treacherous path along the irrigation canal to reach the only point from where the river could be crossed; a temporary suspension bridge that had been built last year by the villagers with financial assistance from the local MLA, Khashim Vashum (45 ST A/C) after the two existing suspension bridge had been washed off by the Mora Cyclone in 2017.
As per sources, the father had dropped off the deceased along with an older minor of about 13 years to a certain point along the canal and returned to pick up the remaining members of the family. Left to themselves, the boy reportedly left the care of the older companion and walked on his own before slipping and falling into the river.
Two search parties from Huishu and Poi were deployed to recover the body of the drowned boy but so far, no traces of the boy has been found. And in another unfortunate turn of events after the search concluded for the day, a bolero camper of the search party met with an accident leaving four seriously injured. Local reports, however, state that another extensive search will be conducted tomorrow to recover the deceased boy.
The misfortune accident comes at a time when Huishu Riverside has become one of the top camping spots and tourist destinations in Ukhrul in the last few years. The riverside was also the venue for the first ever North East Tourism Festival sponsored by the NEC in 2018. In spite of all these, the river still doesn’t have a proper suspension bridge for the villagers to traverse let alone a bridge for vehicles to pass. Despite numerous pleas from the villagers for a proper bridge along the river, the Government had been turning a deaf ear to these pleas. There are reports for the work order of a minor suspension bridge in the offing under the BADP but little improvements on the existing condition of the bridge can be expected from such a small package.
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