Video: Forest Officers Risk Own Lives to Rescue Woman & Baby From Raging Waterfall. WATCH
Chennai: As a woman and a child were stuck in a flash flood and about to fall into a raging waterfall, rescuers didn’t shy away from the challenge and risked their own lives to save the two. The incident took place at the Kallavarayan hills, near Attur in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district on Sunday.
A few brave officers of the Indian Forest Service (IFS) attempted a daring rescue operation to save two people who were stuck near a gushing waterfall that was flowing with a powerful current. A video shared by IFS official Praveen Angusamy, which has now gone viral, showed how the operation was conducted in dangerous circumstances.
In the two-minute video, a woman and her infant are seen sitting on the edge of a rock as water gushes by at Anaivari Muttal falls in Salem after heavy rains battered the area. The place had reopened for the public two months ago after COVID-19 restrictions were eased.
A few forest officers along with some locals decided to get the stranded mother-child duo to safety. The officers climbed the precarious rocks and reached down to them and then used a rope to lift the child first and then the woman.
While the mother and child were pulled to safety, two men who were helping the forest officers slipped from the rocks and fell into the gushing waterfall. However, the official who tweeted the video shared that the volunteers swam across to safety.
Watch the video below:
A mom & child, caught in a flood were rescued by #ForestDept staff & brave villagers near Tamil Nadu's Anaivari waterfalls, an ecotourism spot.
Two of the rescuers while returning, slipped & fell inside the water but swam across to safety. Kudos to entire team ???? #GreenWarriors pic.twitter.com/6TDqC5qV1y
— Praveen Angusamy, IFS ???? (@PraveenIFShere) October 26, 2021
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has directed senior officials and district collectors to take appropriate precautionary measures to prevent flooding and minimise losses due to the onset of North East Monsoon. The weather department said that nine districts including Kanyakumari, Nilgiris and Erode, have received heavy rains in October.