Being chased by surging water could be the worst ever nightmare lived by anybody as seen from Sunday’s tragedy in Himachal Pradesh’s River Beas in which 24 students went missing and are feared killed.
Precautions to avert such incidents are very few, especially to alert tourists from outside who are not aware of the river’s topography or the protocols to be followed.
Engineers at the State’s hydroelectric projects say that they usually alert the local officials about the lifting of crest gates, keeping in view the safety of villagers and cattle grazers nearby. “A day before the water is released, we alert the revenue and police officials in the surrounding villages, and they in turn, issue caution to the villagers. We also sound the siren three to four times, which can be heard within a periphery of 15 km.
For local people, this would serve as enough caution,” says M. Krishna Rao, Chief Engineer (Irrigation), Srisailam Project. In case the water released is part of seasonal flows, information is disseminated through the media too. District Collector too is alerted. Tourists, who are unaware of the siren’s significance, are generally cautioned by villagers and fishermen, if the former follow the beaten approaches to the river. Otherwise, it is risking one’s life.
“Caution boards and watch-and-ward staff are posted along the river, but people manage to squeeze past,” says Mr. Rao. Basic precaution is to test the waters, says Engineer-in-Chief (Irrigation) C. Muralidhar. “We release the first flow little by a little on Day One, so as to alert people. The next day, we lift more gates to allow the full flow.”
The Superintendent Engineer of Nagarajunasagar Hydro Electric project, J.S.V.U. Sastri, says observing caution is the tourists’ ‘responsibility’, as keeping watch for 15 km down the stream is not possible. Since 1980, close to 500 people, mostly youngsters, must have been washed away by the Sagar flows in similar incidents, he recalls.
