Three students from an agriculture college in Aurangabad drowned in the Dugarwadi waterfall in Trimbakeshwar, about 40 km from Nashik on Tuesday. All three students were natives of Telangana.

Six students from the Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj Shikshan Sanstha’s College of Agriculture had come to Trimbakeshwar on Tuesday on a motorcycle expedition. According to reports, the three deceased — Anusha, Koti Reddy and Raghuvanshi — decided to climb down the waterfall while the other three in the group decided to return to the hotel.

The Durgawadi waterfalls are deemed unsafe during monsoon as the water levels suddenly rise. However, on Tuesday the water levels were low and the waterfall had almost dried up.

Speaking to The Times of India, Trimbakeshwar Tehsildar Deepak Girase said Koti Reddy had come twice before to visit the waterfalls and he promised to get his two other friends safely back to the hotel. However, when the trio didn’t return to the hotel until evening, their friends first tried to contact them over the phone which was out of range. The students went to the nearby village in search of their friends but returned without any clue.

The next morning, the trio went back to the waterfall and with the help of villagers descended into the waterfall. Even though the waterfall had dried up, there was a deep pool in the base. They found Anusha’s broken slippers after which they spotted her body inside the pool.

The police arrived and fished out the body. The volunteers were about to give up their search in the evening when they recovered the other two bodies of Koti Reddy and Raghuvanshi around 5 pm on Wednesday.