Brave girls row villagers to safety

Guwahati: Their backyard in Hatilung village in Upper Assam's Lakhimpur district was already flooded - the waters had covered the betelnut trees by three feet. By 6am on July 10, water started rushing into the village, about 3km west of Lakhimpur town, as the embankment that protected them from floods every year was breached. First the crops went, then the houses - leaving more than 600 people stranded, shuddering and fearing for their lives. By 10am water had touched their waists, it was further rising and the current became stronger. The men got busy cobbling together huts by the road, 200 metres north of the village and the only available highland, and women waded through the water with many carrying precious belongings on their heads. The art of rowing a banana raft that Pinki Gogoi and her friend Puja Gogoi had learnt since childhood came handy to not only carry their goods to the tent already set up by her father Shishu Ram and brother Nipon but also helped take at least 30 others to their new safe zone, beyond homes that no longer existed. "Four to five people can get onto a plantain raft. I saw Mridu aunty and Sarumai aunty dangerously wading and so I asked them to get on our raft. It is always safe to sit on the raft as it helps to maintain balance in the current," Pinki, 22, told The Telegraph over phone today. Asked how many people she had helped, she said, "I didn't count but it would be around 25-30 people." Mridu Gogoi, 45, said it was difficult for her to wade through the chest-deep water and the two girls had rowed her to safety. Pinki graduated from Lakhimpur Girls' College and Pujashree from Naoboicha College in the same district this year. Pinki's father said, "Although we don't have floods every year, she was witness to the severe floods in 2008 and the people's sufferings. This probably encouraged her to help others this time." The sudden surge in the water level, which rose to about 8-10 feet, was triggered by the release of water from Ranganadi dam in Arunachal Pradesh, breaching the embankment that protects villages like Hatilung, Bogolijan and Boalmari. Like nearly 100 families from the three villages, the Gogois spent three days in a roadside tent. Some people are yet to return as their houses are still under water. "Today the water dried up as there was no rain," Gogoi said. Lakhimpur, a flood-prone district, has reported the highest deaths (11), including three children below the age of 14, among the state's 29 flood-affected districts this year. Altogether 65 people have died and more than 25 lakh people have been affected in this year's floods in the state. The girls' brave act has prompted Freedom Fighter Phaniram Das Foundation, a trust based in Kolaigaon in Darrang district, to urge the government to confer bravery awards on them. "Both deserve awards for the courage and bravery they showed during an emergency and for saving lives. We plan to felicitate them and will write to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju to confer bravery awards on them," the foundation's chairman Bikash Kumar Das, a retired sergeant of the air force, said. Lakhimpur deputy commissioner Barun Bhuyan said the administration had received information about the girls' feat and would verify it.