2 days ago
On Sutlej, dramatic rescue to pull back boat drifting towards Pakistan
Bathinda: A dramatic rescue played out in the rain-swollen Sutlej on Monday when a boat carrying over three dozen residents of a village in Punjab's Ferozepur was nearly swept into Pakistan by fast currents.
The villagers in the boat could not hold on to the rope that would have kept them on course and inside Indian territory, and began panicking. Some men on the riverbank realised what was happening and paddled out to them in a desperate dash to pull them back.
After a nail-biting chase, they managed to rope the runaway boat and fought their way back to shore, paddling against the current.
The Sutlej zigzags in the area into Pakistan and back into India along this part of the border.
Hundreds of villagers go to their fields across the Sutlej to tend to crops, mainly vegetables and green fodder, on Zero Line.
The usual mode of travel is a flat-bottomed boat, locally called 'bedi'. When the water level is low, the sailing is smooth. But during monsoon, when the Sutlej swells and surges, it's a heart-thumping ride as the boat is harder to control.
On Monday, over three dozen residents of Gajniwala village were returning home when the current started pulling their 'bedi' towards Pakistan.
"The gushing water was too powerful and the boat carrier lost the rope," said Gajniwala resident Karmjit Singh. Another villager, Chamkaur, said they felt powerless before the strength of the current.
Seeing that the boat was drifting away from the bank, some youths jumped into a small boat and rowed towards it. Over the distance, they could see where the river enters Pakistani territory and zigzags back into Indian territory as the Sutlej creek.
A couple of them grabbed the rope, jumped into the water, and swam towards the 'bedi'. They handed the rope to the boatman just in time for the boat to be pulled back into Indian territory and then on to shore.
Ferozepur deputy commissioner Deepshikha Sharma said that as soon as she learnt about the incident late on Monday, she directed the SDM to reach Gajniwala and urged BSF officers to look into the incident. The SDM has been directed to sensitise people not to exceed the permissible limit of 20 people per 'bedi', as the boats were recently repaired.
People have been asked to return immediately if the river's flow is stronger.
The BSF DIG has been requested to deploy some officials to monitor communication from one end of the riverbank to the other.
It was a close call. On June 17, 2019, a boat carrying farmers capsized in the Sutlej near Ferozepur's Gatti Rahimke village, close to the India-Pakistan border. Three people died.
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