Kerala is seeing the worst of heavy rains and flash floods, with 37 people having lost their lives until now. Another 50,000 people have been evacuated and shifted to camps.
Amidst this, a brave and touching rescue effort was caught on camera by News18 Kerala and the video has now gone viral on social media. In it, a man is running across a bridge with a child in his arms minutes before the Cheruthoni bridge is submerged under water.
The man, Kanhaiya Kumar, an NDRF constable from Bihar, saw a man holding the child, waiting to cross the bridge as the water came gushing down. He ran towards the man and child and dashed across the bridge without a second thought.
Speaking to NDTV, Kumar said:
I did not even have time to ask who the man was. I knew they had to cross and they were scared. They were many people on the side I was standing. Politicians, locals, officials, but nothing else mattered to me and I dashed off, carried the kid, and ran back, with the father following me. I am not new to this. I have six years of experience. With that experience, came my well-thought decision.
The NDTV report also says that Kumar, who has been with the NDRF for six years now, is trained in deep-diving from the the fourth batallion of NDRF at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu and has been part of several disaster rescue and relief operations across India. Kumar is now being hailed as a hero online. The bridge is currently submerged.
The footage was captured on 10 August as the fifth shutter of the Idukki dam was opened for the first time in 26 years.
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