Written by Aditi RajaVadodara | October 9, 2025 08:59 PM IST 3 min readUnder the watch of the police teams and the Mamlatdar of Padra, the search teams continued to look for any decomposed bodies.Four days after two children aged 5 and 3 were swept away after falling into crocodile-infested Dhadhar river at Kotna village of Padra taluka in Vadodara district on Sunday evening, search operations were intensified on Thursday to retrieve their bodies with teams scanning every inch of a four kilometer downstream stretch of the river until its meeting point with the Narmada.A white shirt, presumed to belong to the five-year-old, was allegedly spotted in the mouth of a crocodile in the river by a search team member.On Thursday, teams of the fire department from Vadodara and Karjan as well as State Disaster Response Force continued to search for the two boys, who had slipped into the river after the motorcycle that they were travelling on with their parents slipped into the river late on Sunday evening.Under the watch of the police teams and the Mamlatdar of Padra, the search teams continued to look for any decomposed bodies.Vadodara Rural Sub-Divisional Magistrate Aishwarya Dubey said, “The rescue personnel are of the opinion that since four days have passed, bodies can be retrieved from the water surface. We are trying to find the bodies so that the families can conduct the final rites, but the teams have not come across any clues… There is certainly fear that the children could have been preyed upon by the crocodiles.”The incident took place when Hitesh Padhiyar, his wife Vaishali and two children Devendra (5) and Sohan (3) were travelling on a motorcycle to their home in Kotna from Aalva village in Waghodia taluka, when they attempted to cross an overflowing causeway of the Dhadhar river– a usual travel for the villagers.Padhiyar lost control of the motorcycle and the entire family fell into the river and the two children were swept away.Story continues below this adVadodara District Collector Anil Dhameliya said that a search team member had spotted a white shirt that presumably belonged to the five-year-old, in the mouth of a crocodile.“The grandfather of the child identified the shirt but we have not yet found any bodies. The search has been intensified as the river had been swelling and the children could have easily been swept away. We have not yet come across any clues of them having been preyed upon either… Dhadhar meets Narmada River downstream and the teams have been looking throughout the stretch.”Dhameliya added that since the river flow has reduced in the last four days, no notification has been issued to caution villagers against using the causeway. “Police have been deployed at the spot for now and the water has reduced. If we feel that the river is continuing to overflow, we will issue a ban on travel on the way,” Dhameliya said.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:ahmedabad