Thiruneermalai Drowning Incident Is wake-Up Call

CHENNAI: The death of four schoolchildren in the Thiruneermalai Periya Eri has once again exposed a largely preventable danger lurking in Chennai’s rapidly urbanising southern suburbs — open lakes, abandoned quarry pits and other water bodies that remain easily accessible to children — reminding authorities of a systematic water safety policy.

The four children from Lakshmipuram in Chromepet — Devadharshan (12), Yuvanesh (10), Pooja (13) and Khushi (13) — went missing on Saturday afternoon and were found dead in the Thiruneermalai Periya Eri the next morning. Police suspect they had entered the lake to swim and may have got trapped in the slush.

In May this year, a 60-year-old man and his 15-year-old grandson drowned in Narayanapuram lake, near Pallikaranai, after the boy entered the deep end and the grandfather tried to rescue him.

In September 2025, two class VIII students drowned in Chitlapakkam lake. Residents then pointed out that three children had died in the same lake four years earlier and complained about the absence of adequate fencing and safety measures.

In May 2025, two school students drowned in a roughly 300-foot-deep stone quarry at Thiruneermalai after one boy got into difficulty and his friend attempted to rescue him. Both died.

These were not isolated incidents. Along the ECR coastline, 17 drowning deaths were recorded between January 2025 and February this year, according to police data. These deaths were reported at Kanathur, Kovalam, Muttukadu, Uthandi, Reddykuppam and Nainarkuppam.

S.M. Govindarajan, president, Federation of Residents Welfare Associations (Forwa) of Tambaram Corporation said the southern suburbs have undergone enormous urban expansion over the past two decades.

“What was once a relatively isolated agricultural tank or quarry is now often surrounded by houses, schools, roads and densely populated neighbourhoods. Children can reach the water body within minutes as fencing and continuous surveillance are often absent,” he said.

Residential layouts have spread around a landscape that still contains numerous lakes, tanks, quarry pits and drainage channels.

The Chengalpet district administration maintains a dedicated listing of water bodies covering the Tambaram, Pallavaram and Vandalur areas, among others.

The problem is that urbanisation has changed the relationship between residents and these water bodies. In several cases, the water may also appear deceptively shallow from the bank. But quarry pits can have sudden changes in depth, while lakes can contain thick mud and slush.

The recent Thiruneermalai incident illustrates precisely this danger. Police suspect the four children became trapped in slush after entering the lake. A neighbour told police that the children had previously gone towards the lake area but had been brought back safely.

“Most of the lakes in the southern suburbs of Chennai have not been desilted for years. One child gets into trouble and another jumps in to save him. One of the most dangerous patterns in drowning incidents involving children is the rescue attempt by an untrained companion or relative. This was evident in the Thiruneermalai quarry incident last year and in the Narayanapuram lake tragedy this year,” said Govindarajan.

Last year, police had said one of the two boys at the quarry started drowning and the other attempted to rescue him. Both died. At Narayanapuram, the 15-year-old boy entered the deep end and his grandfather attempted to save him. Both drowned.

According to the Tambaram police, children often enter water in groups with only one or two believing they can swim, and an attempt to rescue a drowning companion can turn into a second fatality.

V. Santhanam, a veteran social activist of Chromepet, observed that if a child can simply walk into a lake or abandoned quarry from a residential area, a warning board several metres away can act as an effective deterrent.

Strong fencing should be put up around the water bodies and police patrols can remove children when they are spotted, he suggested, adding that the water resources department should be held accountable for these avoidable tragedies.

“The local bodies, police, revenue authorities or a private landowner should also take up responsibility for the fencing and monitoring,” he said.

Children living near a lake may visit it repeatedly without incident. That can create the dangerous belief that the water is safe. Knowing basic swimming does not make somebody safe in a deep, natural water body. Slush, weeds, sudden depth changes and exhaustion can overwhelm even a swimmer, he pointed out.

The Tambaram police have warned people against entering the sea during adverse weather, taking selfies close to waves and entering the water after consuming alcohol.

According to the social activist, the first priority should be physical exclusion from water bodies to prevent downing. Every identified high-risk lake, quarry and abandoned water-filled excavation in densely populated areas should be mapped and classified according to risk. High-risk locations should have continuous fencing, controlled access and gates that cannot be easily breached.

The second is danger signage that children can understand. Instead of merely installing a generic board saying ‘Danger’, signs should clearly state the depth or specific hazard wherever that information is known — for example, ‘Deep water — sudden drop — swimming prohibited’.

Thirdly, authorities should identify repeat risk locations using police and fire and rescue services data. A water body where children have repeatedly been found swimming should automatically become a priority for fencing and surveillance.

Fourthly, schools in the vicinity should be involved. Students should be taught that drowning can occur even in apparently calm water and, critically, that they must not jump into water to rescue a friend.

The World Health Organization recommends teaching school-age children basic swimming, water safety and safe rescue skills, while also stressing barriers that control access to hazardous water. Don’t jump in to rescue a drowning person. This is perhaps the most important message that should reach children.

A child who sees a friend drowning should raise an alarm, call emergency services and seek help from trained rescuers rather than entering the water.

A person struggling in water can instinctively grab the rescuer and pull both under water. Natural water bodies also contain hazards that may not be visible from the surface.

Bystanders should, therefore, be trained in safe rescue and resuscitation, rather than encouraged to undertake improvised rescues. WHO specifically lists training bystanders in safe rescue and resuscitation among its recommended drowning prevention measures.

Santhanam urged the authorities to prepare a publicly accessible register of dangerous water bodies in the suburbs of Chennai. The register should have details of how many lakes, quarry pits and other dangerous water bodies in the southern suburbs currently have no proper fencing, how many have witnessed previous drowning incidents, who is responsible for securing each one, and how often they are actually inspected.

Those questions can be answered only through a joint audit by the civic bodies, police, water resources department and fire and rescue services department, he said.

For families, the message is equally clear: children should never be allowed to swim or bathe in lakes, quarry pits or other natural water bodies, however familiar or shallow they may appear.

When a dangerous water body sits next to a densely populated neighbourhood and children can walk into it without encountering a barrier, prevention is ultimately an infrastructure and enforcement responsibility.

The four deaths at Thiruneermalai are, therefore, not merely another drowning incident. They are a warning that Chennai’s expanding southern suburbs need a systematic water safety policy — before the next group of children disappears.