JOIN USKerala bus crew earns plaudits for rescuing people from landslide
A day after nature unleashed its fury on Kerala, a series of heart-wrenching incidents and narrow escapes during the series of landslides on Saturday have begun to come out.
A family from Gujarat, who were on a vacation in Kerala, had a narrow escape after being washed away in a landslide at Pullpara near Peerumedu in the high range district of Idukki.
As vehicles were held up in the hilly terrain owing to landslides and landslips along the roads, a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation's bus conductor spotted two people, including a child, being carried away in the gushing water. The conductor, Jaison Joseph, immediately pulled them out and took them inside the bus.
Later, the same conductor and the bus driver Thomas, resuced a woman who was found stuck on the wheels of a nearby car.
Video footage of the act went viral on social media.
Vipin Patel, along with his wife and son managed to narrowly escape getting swept away by the landslide. The family was heading towards Kumaly at Thekkady, a popular tourist spot in Idukki.
Joseph and Thomas also helped many caught up in the landslide to take shelter in the bus and later dropped them to a safe location.
The brave act of the KSRTC conductor and driver came close on the heels of another KSRTC bus driver being widely criticised and even suspended from service for driving a bus into a flood and risking the lives of many. The incident took place near Poojnar in the Kottayam-Idukki border areas on Saturday.
While the driver Jayadeep maintained that he only tried to rescue the passengers, local people said that the driver ignored their warning about the risk and drove the vehicle into the flooded water. The bus eventually got stuck in the flood and the passengers were rescued by local people.
At nearby Mundakayam, a concrete house was entirely washed away in the water that came gushing along with debris following a landslide. Many houses in the landslide-hit areas suffered serious damage.
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