75-yr-old Odisha woman swept by swollen river survives crocodile-infested waters

When 71-year-old Keshi Dalai went to the Birupa river on Sunday morning, she did not know that she would spend the next two hours fighting for her life in the crocodile-infested river. A moment of dizziness sent her into the swollen waters, beginning an ordeal that carried her nearly 22 kilometres downstream through one of the state’s crocodile-inhabited rivers.

The old woman from Kalamatiya village in Jajpur district’s Bari block had gone to the Birupa river to relieve herself when she lost her footing. The river, swollen by flooding, carried her into a powerful current.

By the time local residents spotted her at Balipatana in Kendrapara district, Dalai had spent nearly two hours in the water, repeatedly sinking beneath the surface and reappearing in the current.

When word spread that someone was being swept downstream, Abhijit Sahu, one of the rescuers, said he and others rushed to the river after hearing the alarm. They took a boat into the current and found an elderly woman repeatedly disappearing beneath the water.

“We pulled her into the boat and brought her ashore,” he said.

The villagers pressed her stomach to help expel the water before calling the emergency ambulance service. They rubbed her hands and legs, applied ointment and tried to warm her. She was taken to Pattamundai hospital and was later reported to be doing well.

“I felt dizzy and fell into the river,” Dalai said after her rescue. “I went under the water and then floated along with the current. The boys here pulled me out and brought me to safety.”

The rescuers later found that Dalai had come from the Jajpur side of the river. They said her survival was incredible as the Birupa is known for crocodiles, and she had been carried a considerable distance through its fast-moving waters.

“We have to say that she was extremely fortunate,” Sahu said. “She was not attacked by a crocodile and, despite being swept away for such a long distance, she survived.”

“She had been in the water for nearly two hours, and her body had turned completely pale,” he said.

The rescue came more than a month after another dramatic flood survival in the state. Last month, a 35-year-old man in Bhadrak district survived for five days after being swept away by floodwaters.

Sunanda Behera, of Balipatana village in Arjunpur gram panchayat of Dhamnagar block, disappeared on August 14 after being caught in strong flood currents.

Villagers searched for him but found no trace. He was eventually discovered submerged up to his neck in floodwater, clinging to a palm tree. A team from the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force reached the spot and rescued him.