Flood: Love for pets made two women stay at home

This is the story of two sisters whose love for their domestic animals made them stay back at home even when the entire village ran for there lives when the swollen Payaswini river washed away houses and paddy fields at Koinadu.

Ayesha (65) and Sainaba (60) are residents of Koinadu village in Madikeri. The
adversity brought out the best in them when they stayed behind to save the lives of their cattle.

Sainaba’s daughter stays
far away in Kerala, which too experienced the floods. Ayesha and Sainaba’s house was situated on the banks of River Payaswini. They were eking out a living by taking up cultivation on 20 guntas of land, by cultivating arecanut and coffee.

As Ayesha was physically challenged, Sainaba was solely taking care of the family. The recent flood had taken away their source of livelihood. Their arecanut grove was filled with silt.

The duo were rearing two cows. The heavy rain on August 16 had flooded their arecanut plantations and also led to swelling of River Payaswini. Fearing the flooding of houses, the members of Bhagavan Swayam Seva Sangha in Sampaje had rescued all the families in the village.

In spite of the repeated appeal from the members, Ayesha and Sainaba refused to go, leaving behind the cows.

Even after the floodwater entered the courtyard of
their house, they remained inside their house to take care of the cattle.

“We had reared the cows and calves as our own children. Who will take care of them if we leave them behind in the time of distress? We spent two days surrounded by water. Had we deserted our house, the poor cattle would have been washed away,” said Sainaba with tears in her eyes.

However, in the time of distress, the members of Bhagavan Seva Sangha stood by these aged women. The landslides and flood had covered the well which provided the only source of drinking water to the women. Having realised this, 22 youths from the Sangha recently cleaned the well by removing silt and made water available to them.