Daring rescue saves starving family in Wayanad cave
Kalpetta: In a daring eight-hour operation, four forest officers rescued a six-member tribal family, including four children under the age of five, who were found starving in a water-filled cave downstream from Soochipara waterfall. The rescue mission was carried out after landslides devastated parts of Wayanad.
Kalpetta forest range officer K Ashif, along with section forest officer Jayachandran, beat forest officer K Anil Kumar, and forest rapid response team member Anoop Thomas, traversed rocky terrain to reach the family. Ashif recounted, “Initially, she [the mother, Santha] was reluctant to speak to us... It was only then that she disclosed about her husband and three other starving kids, the youngest just one year old.”
After lodging Santha and her eldest child at the forest quarters, the team embarked on a four-kilometer trek through treacherous terrain to reach the rest of the family. Using a rope, the officers climbed down to the cave and found the father, Krishnan, and the three children squatting under a makeshift sheet. “We feared they would not accompany us, but when we explained the gravity of the situation and the danger of staying there, Krishnan agreed to follow us,” Ashif said.
The team then fashioned a sling from a blanket to safely transport the children up the slippery, rocky terrain. "It was very risky—failure would have led to us falling into a 100-meter gorge. While walking back to the camp, we took turns carrying the babies in the sling," Jayachandran added.
The rescued family is now lodged at a forest department facility in Attamala.
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Shivaji statue collapse case: HC grants bail to consultant Chetan Patil
Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to consultant Chetan Patil arrested in connection with the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj''s statue at Rajkot fort in Malvan in August.
A 35-foot statue of the iconic Maratha warrior king collapsed in Sindhudurg district on August 26, nearly nine months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it on Navy Day.
Patil was arrested on August 30 from Kolhapur.
A single bench of Justice A S Kilor on Thursday held that no case was made out to implicate Patil in the case as he had not been appointed as the structural designer of the statue.
The bench further said Patil had only submitted a structural stability report of the pedestal of the statue and the pedestal was intact even after the collapse.
Another accused, Jaydeep Apte, who was the sculptor and contractor, was also arrested in the case. The HC said it would hear his bail plea on November 25.
The Sindhudurg police had registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for negligence and other offences last month against Apte and Patil for the statue's collapse.
Patil and Apte moved HC seeking bail after a sessions court rejected their pleas.
