The washing away of an eight year-old class II student Sannidhi in Kalthodu village of Udupi district on Monday has yet again brought to fore the highly unsafe conditions the residents of Coastal and Malenadu Karnataka live in, particularly during the monsoon, in remote villages.
Sannidhi, a student of Government Higher Primary School in Chapparike, slipped from the hands of a midday meal worker while crossing a swollen stream on her way back home and was swept away in the strong currents on Monday at Beejamakki. While an older member of her family would generally accompany her to and from the school, she was unfortunately alone that evening, according to Byndoor Tahsildar Kiran Gowraiah.
Sannidhi is not the lone child to be snatched by monsoon fury — last year, a school girl was swept away after falling from a footbridge into a rivulet near Padubidri in Udupi district. Similar cases were reported in the previous years too from these regions, where water bodies remain full to the brim for at least four months a year and connectivity in hinterlands remains severely hampered.
