Meet Delhi's Daredevil Divers Risking Their Lives to Save Drowning People
A team of 20 divers from the Delhi Boat Club became saviors when they managed to rescue 2,600 people, 940 cows, and 450 dogs from floods after the Yamuna river reached an all-time high, causing a major disaster in low-lying areas this monsoon season.
SputnikWhile the entire nation was celebrating the arrival of the monsoon last month after enduring a scorching heat wave, a 17-year-old schoolboy, Lalit Sharma, decided to enjoy the fresh showers with his friends on the bank of the Yamuna River in Delhi.
While posing for a picture, Sharma slipped and fell into the river. Due to the strong water current, Sharma was carried away.
His friends tried to save him, but he was nowhere to be found.
At 5 pm, the Delhi Boat Club got a distress call and the entire rescue unit rushed to the spot. After a search operation lasting hours, Sharma's body was found 30 km away.
Like Sharma, there have been many cases where people have drowned, not just in the Yamuna but also deep under canals.
What is a Delhi Diver's Life Like?
The divers of the Delhi Boat Club have been going beyond the call of duty and fearlessly risking their lives, whether it's to save people and animals from drowning during Delhi floods, retrieving the bodies of suicide victims, or assisting the police in recovering weapons discarded in the Yamuna river after a crime.
"This year, the Delhi flood turned out to be catastrophic, something which the city has never faced, pushing our divers to work tirelessly day in, day out for 10 days without returning their home," Harish Kumar, the in-charge of the Delhi Boat Club, says.
Kumar added that the 20 self-taught divers of his team had managed to rescue 2,600 people, 940 cows, and 450 dogs from floods after the Yamuna River this monsoon season.
The 20 self-taught divers of the Delhi Boat Club can fish bodies out of the water when it is 40 to 50 feet deep without wearing a diving suit or oxygen support.
However, they have undergone several life-threatening situations and challenges.
"From being bitten by snakes or insects to getting injured due to broken gases inside the Yamuna River, we divers undergo many dangerous situations during our rescue mission. But that doesn't stop us from doing our job and bouncing back after completing the treatment course," a 25-year-old diver, Javed Khan, told Sputnik.
How Do Divers Save Lives?
Hailing from a farmer's background, these divers reside in the villages in Delhi’s Jagatpuri and Wazirabad areas.
They started learning to swim for fun at a very young age and used to spend their after-school time taking a dip in the ponds and at the banks of the Yamuna and collecting coins, and other valuables thrown by the devotees.
Little did they know that one day, it would become their profession.
“We used to collect coins and jewelry including nosepins, rings or anklets lost by the women who used to come to the riverside to take a dip or wash clothes. Eventually, we got trained in diving 60 feet deep without any oxygen masks and can hold our breath for one to two minutes,” diver Dev Singh said.
When they got to know that divers were being hired for a rescue unit, they gave it a shot. But it wasn’t easy for them to pass the test.
“We were asked to cross the Yamuna River to and fro. Then they threw a brick 20 feet down the river and asked us to retrieve it. The Yamuna River water was very dirty and had high currents. But with our experience, we managed to retrieve them without wearing any bodysuit or oxygen support,” Khan said.
Most of them didn’t even complete their studies and took the work to earn a living for their families.
“Our mission lies in saving people who get stuck in floods or try to commit suicide. Some meet with an accident or get carried away due to high river currents during religious processions near the riverside,” Singh said.
What challenges do divers face in their rescue missions?
Having been rescuing people for the past nine years, these divers feel content in helping people find their drowned loved ones so they may get0 closure.
But while risking their lives, they undergo several health issues due to plunging into filthy river canals without bodysuits and oxygen cylinders.
“The river canals are filthy as the factory chemicals flow into them. If you take a dip into the Seelampur canal, your body will develop a rash and can also get an eye infection. Sometimes nose also bleeds. Our situation gets better after taking medication and treatment at the hospital, but now we have become used to it. However, we do hope to get some advanced technology that would make our work less risky and dangerous,” another diver, Naeeruddin, concluded.