UDUPI: When all seemed to be lost for Udupi villages at the mercy of flash floods amid incessant rain, hope came floating on a kayak. Mohammed Imthiaz Kemmannu, a kayaking adventurist, has rescued over 250 flood-hit people in the last few years.
A member of the Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project’s (SKDRDP) Shourya Disaster Management Team, Imthiaz, 44, has rescued nearly 70 people from various villages in and around Nittoor in the last few days of heavy rains that pounded villages of Udupi district. Imthiaz told TOI that he had rescued mainly patients, elderly people, women and children using his kayak. “On July 6, I received a phone call from the ward member of Kodankoor at 7am seeking help. I rushed to Nittoor with my kayak and started the rescue operation. When the rescue boat of the fire and emergency department could not be taken to an isolated house in Nittoor, I reached the spot by kayak and rescued two elderly persons, who were stranded there. Later, I continued rescue operation with kayak and helped many who were stranded at Kodankoor, Tharakattee, Kemmannu, Kodavoor, Kemmannu and Nittoor in the next two days,” he said.
Asked to name his biggest challenge in memory, Imthiaz recalls receiving a call from Kodankoor about an elderly bed-ridden patient who could not be taken out of his house. “I will give the service whenever people ask me for my help,” said Imthiaz, who runs Water Adventures Kemmannu, a tourist kayaking service provider.
