A 25-year-old doctor from Andhra Pradesh lost her life after drowning at the Colomb beach in Goa on Tuesday. Her body was sent to her hometown of Jaggayyapeta in Krishna district the following day, arriving on Thursday.
According to local news reports, Dr Utukuru Ramya Krishna had earlier been working in a Primary Health Centre in Jaggayyapet after completing her MBBS. She had moved to Goa for work in 2018.
According to Canacona Inspector Sudesh Narvekar, Ramya had gone to the beach with her friends on Tuesday evening when the incident happened. “There were six people in total. The doctor and her friend were standing on a rock taking photographs of themselves when a strong wave came and pulled them into the sea,” said Inspector Narvekar.
On noticing that the two women had gone missing, their friends and a few local residents who were nearby were able to rescue Ramya’s friend but were not able to find Ramya right away. Inspector Narvekar added that since the group was in an isolated part of the beach, they were not under the vigilance of the life guards. “Some local residents who were fishing nearby came and tried to help, but it was too late to save her,” he said.
Ramya had been living in Canacona city in South Goa, and had been working with the 108 emergency response service. Local news has reported that Ramya’s father had passed away recently, and she is survived by her mother, two sisters and a brother.
It had been reported in June last year that 24 ‘no selfie zones’ had been marked and identified with red flags along the coastline of Goa following a series of accidents resulting from tourists attempting to take selfies in dangerous locations. The measure was taken following the deaths of two tourists from Tamil Nadu in June 2018, who had died in two separate but similar incidents of climbing onto rocks in the water to take selfies.