It was a nearly 30-hour ordeal for the seven cattle-herds and about 300 buffaloes marooned on three different islands in Godavari near Parpelly village in Laxmanchanda mandal of Adilabad district before they could be rescued on Wednesday. Another 300 buffaloes, however, are still stuck on one island and will be brought back only after the water recedes in the mighty river.
Marooned
The cattle-herds, who had ventured into the pastures on the islands in Godavari the previous day at about 10 a.m. got surrounded by water from all sides before they realised what was happening. There was a sudden rush of water in the river following release of flood water from the huge SRSP dam located about 20 km upstream in Nizamabad district.
“Though we had received information about release of water from the SRSP project, villagers could not be alerted on the public address system owing to a power cut,” revealed K. Ashok, a Parpelly villager. While Nimmala Bhojanna, Katkam Dharmapuri and Lingala Mallaiah were marooned on an island near Satrevu, Atya Naik was stuck on another island near Gammekurru and Boddu Sayanna, Pathikonda Sinu and Kamalkot Sayanna on a different island near Munipally village.
Though the hapless cattle-herds had to spend a sleepless night on hungry stomach, they were able to keep in touch with their kin as they carried mobile phones. It was at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday that villagers deployed expert swimmers to supply food to the marooned people.
Four youths from Parpelly carried food tied to their heads for those surrounded by water at Satrevu, while the administration deployed swimmers to do the same at Munipepply. The effort was launched from a kilometre upstream considering the strong flow of water. The cattle-herds were brought back by swimmers at about 4 p.m. as water had receded to some extent. Nirmal RDO G. Gajjanna, Laxmanchanda Tahsildar Jummadi Devanand, personnel from the Fire Brigade and Revenue staff were present all through the episode.
