Day Three: Still no trace of Shanthakumar, over 300 personnel on the search

Its been three days since Shanthakumar's fell into a storm water drain, yet there is no trace of his body. The tears of his family members have dried by now, but their incessant pleas continue to resound in the ears of the authorities. Hoping against hope, the family members of the BBMP JCB operator just wish to see his face for one last time. 

While search operations are still on, even the BBMP authorities have started losing hope. On Sunday, 45 firefighters, 300 BBMP workers, 13 JCB earthmovers and 7 Hitachi machines were deployed to look for the man. Late night, a man Sajid, who was walking by the bridge that was being constructed by the Public Works department in Kambhipura informed the police that he had spotted a body floating in the storm water drain below the bridge.

Following this tip off, rescue personnel were spread across Kengeri, Hampapura, and Kumbalagodu up to Byramangala lake, where the storm water drain ended. According to the Palike's Additional Engineer, Siddegowda, 10 BBMP workers were deployed at every dipper till Byramangala to look for the man. Additional forces of National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force were then deployed to look for Shantakumar. However, there were no results. 

Undeterred by the negative outcomes, the BBMP is determined to trace his body and is now planning to deploy drones to look for him. This is not a one-off incident and there have been numerous cases where children and adults have been washed away by storm water drains. None of them survived. 
 

• karnataka
• storm drain