The boy with his mother and a neighbour at Eco Park earlier on Saturday Telegraph Picture

A unit of the disaster management group stationed at the park had also joined in the search. The members fanned out to almost all corners but could not find the boy, triggering suspicion that he could have drowned in one of the water bodies in the park.

Divers from the disaster management unit went into the water body closest to the spot where Sultana was with her friend. His body was fished out around 7pm.

“The boy is suspected to have slipped away from the group and wandered near the pond. It was not possible for him to figure out he was stepping into a water body,” said a senior officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate.

The pond is a little less than 5ft deep, enough for a child to drown, said an officer of the disaster management group. Abez was declared dead at a private hospital in New Town.

The absence of security guards and warning boards near the water body prompted some visitors to blame the park administration for the tragedy. A Hidco official said the park’s large water bodies were barricaded and had boards cautioning visitors to stay away from water.

A case of unnatural death has been registered, said a police officer.

A four-year-old boy drowned in a pond covered with hyacinth inside Eco Park in New Town on Saturday.

The cover makes it difficult for adults to tell the pond from a field. There is no board that warns visitors about the pond.

Sheikh Abez, a resident of Taltala Lane in Narkeldanga, had gone to the park with his father Md Akbar, mother Sultana Parveen and their neighbour’s family around 1pm on Saturday, police said.

The boy got separated when the two families sat down to eat outside the Children’s Park, which is near the pond, Sultana is said to have told cops.

“They sat down to eat around 3pm. Around 3.30pm the women realised that Abez was missing and raised the alarm. Guards and employees of the park and other visitors started a search for the boy,” said a cop of New Town police station.

Officials of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco), which maintains the 480-acre park, informed the police after the initial search drew a blank.