Trio Young Samaritans Gave Ride to Stranded People in DK during Kodagu Floods
Trio Young Samaritans namely Soorajprasad, age 29, a Assistant Professor of Computer Science at KVG Engineering College -Sullia; Akhil Nayak, age 32, a entrepreneur in Puttur; and Ms Varsha Shetty, age 26 , a Design Engineer for Mercedes Benz, Bengaluru gave ride to stranded people in DK during Kodagu Floods
Mangaluru : Kodagu District’s most savage monsoon in a century which killed many people and left thousands homeless, is slowly returning back to normal, with rains stopped, and few of the roads being opened so that people could reach their destinations, which some of them have not seen for days while sheltered in relief camps. In this time of crisis, people from all quarters have come forward to help flood victims in their own little yet brave ways, and transporting them when they were stranded with no other option. Vehicle owners from different corners of the district have also re-purposed their off-roaders for rescue work in flood-hit Kodagu. But among those, were three youngsters who had joined the public effort to help stranded commuters, to reach their destinations when bus services were cancelled, and also when money-hungry airlines had jacked up airfares outrageously.
And it was during this time of the hour, that these Good Samaritans, namely Soorajprasad, age 29, a Assistant Professor of Computer Science at KVG Engineering College -Sullia; Akhil Nayak, age 32, a entrepreneur in Puttur; and Ms Varsha Shetty, age 26, a Design Engineer for Merceds Benz, Bengaluru decided to give ride to stranded people in and around DK near Sullia-Madikeri- during Kodagu Floods. Three of their vehicles, a Mahindra Thar Jeep {belonging to Soorajprasad}, a Mahindra Bolero Camper Pick Up; and a Mahindra CJ 640 jeep, which were usually used for off-road activities, were put into use for a good cause to ferry stranded commuters from inundated flood affected localities.
These three youngsters decided to help stranded commuters in Coastal district, since there was no way to travel to Madikeri, with the collapse of the Subramanya-Bisle Ghat-Saklsehpur and Madikeri- Sullia routes, but the only way to reach Madikeri was to take an alternate route via Bhagamandala and to Mysuru through Madikeri. And since this route had a so narrow road passing through forest and hilly areas, buses were unable to ply through this route. And also if someone took this route, and were depending on Google map for direction, they would have had problems due to bad network connections- and they could have been lost after getting wrong information on Google.
And it was during such time, that these three youngsters got into action to help all those people,stranded in that area. Once the stranded people arrived in Sullia, the three would drive them from Puttur to Bhagamandala via Panathur in Kerala, which is about 50 km-which also made for a sort of an off-road driving experience, so that they can avail public transport to Madikeri, and then to either Mysuru or Bengaluru. This kind of ferrying stranded people had started last week, and now that a few KSRTC buses have started operating the three have been helping delivering medicines to the sites, shipped to Sullia from Mangaluru by A J Shetty Hospital.
When asked how was it to take a risk driving people through unknown roods, for which Soorajprasad said, ” We had accessed this alternative route while dispatching relief materials to Madikeri, and we knew that even though the drive was a tough one we managed to drive and reach safely. Initially we began by providing single service per day, and picked people from Sullia at 10 am and from Bhagamandala at 12 noon. But later we added more more trips when more people needed ride to reach to their destinations. As soon as people came to know about our service, we got simply busy with lots of people requesting to be given a lift in our vehicles.
Soorajprasad’s friend Varsha who had come down for holidays from Bengaluru prior to the flood disaster was stuck in the area for few days, but she was helpful in this relief efforts. The team was also part of the rehabilitation drive held after the landslides at Jodupala and Sullia taluk a few days ago. Presently Soorajprasad have stopped ferrying people instead they are delivering the medicine supplies dropped off by A J Shetty Hospital at Sullia, to be delivered to various relief camps and other locations.
To these three Good Samaritans, Soorajprasad, Akhil and Varsha, Team Mangalorean says a job well done helping those in need- and keep up the good work that you all are entrusted with, and May god bless you all for your community service.