46 perish in India during Hindu festival

PATNA, Sept 26 (AFP): At least 46 people, including 37 children, have drowned while celebrating a Hindu festival in eastern India, a local government official told AFP on Thursday.

The victims drowned in separate incidents in Bihar state while ritually bathing in rivers and ponds swollen by recent flooding, an official from the Bihar Disaster Management Department told AFP.

"People ignored dangerous water levels in rivers as well as ponds while bathing to celebrate this festival," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The drownings occurred from Tuesday across 15 districts of Bihar state as devotees marked the Jitiya Parv Hindu festival, observed by mothers for the wellbeing of their children.

Authorities were still working to recover three other bodies, the official said.

Jitiya Parv runs over several days and is also observed in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand states, and in parts of Nepal's southern plains.

The Bihar state government has announced compensation for each of the victims' families, the government official said.

Last year local media reported 22 people drowned during a 24-hour period in Bihar, most while marking the same festival.

Deadly incidents are common at places of worship during major religious festivals in India, the biggest of which prompt millions of devotees to make pilgrimages to holy sites.

At least 116 people were crushed to death in July at an overcrowded Hindu religious gathering in Uttar Pradesh state, the worst such tragedy in more than a decade.