The Indian Navy on Monday recovered eight bodies from the Arabian Sea off Karnataka's Karwar coast after the boat in which they were sailing capsized, said an official.
"Of the 26 people reported to have been on the boat, civil boats operating in the area rescued 17 and eight bodies were recovered by the naval units. Search is on for the one person still missing," a statement from the Indian Navy said.
The Navy added that a Dornier aircraft from Goa is part of the search and rescue operation.
Karwar in Uttara Kannada district is located about 500km northwest of Bengaluru, on the state's western coast.
The victims were part of 26 devotees who were sailing from the offshore island of Kurumgarh to Rabindranath Tagore Beach near Karwar when their boat capsized at about 3 pm on Monday, the statement said.
"Upon being informed of the incident by the district administration, the Indian Navy despatched two Chetak helicopters and two fast interceptor crafts to the area for search and rescue," it added.
Rupali Nayak, a lawmaker in the district was also at the scene during the incident. However, she was in the other boat and was not injured or harmed.
She along with her team, helped with the resuce operation andmanaged to pull out two people from the water when the boat capsized.
