In a tragic incident, a Class III student fell into a man-made pond and the headmaster, who tried to save the student, drowned near Eluvapalli Panchayat Union Primary School (PUPS) on Wednesday, March 5.
Eluvapalli PUPS is located along the Bagalur road, and over 20 students are currently studying at the school, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
On Wednesday, during lunch break, these students were playing near a local pond dug out for irrigation purposes. A Class III student from the school, M Nithin (8), accidentally fell into the pond. The other students, along with Nithin's brother, immediately informed the school headmaster Gowrisankar Raji (53), who immediately rushed to the spot, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
On noticing the child struggling, he jumped into the pond to rescue the struggling child.
Meanwhile, students also informed the other teachers and villagers, who also rushed to rescue the duo. However, the headmaster and the child died before help arrived. The local residents fished out the bodies of the duo and notified the Bagalur police.
The police sent the body of the child and headmaster to the Hosur government hospital for postmortem and registered a case under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 194 and conducted an investigation.
Commenting on the incident, police sources said, "The pond was dug out by local farmers to store water for watering their crops. In these areas, farmers usually dig out a pond and place a tarpaulin sheet below to ensure that the water does not seep into the ground. As wells are not common in the area, farmers see this as a cost-effective means and use bore wells to pump out water on the makeshift pond."
Police added, "Usually, the farmers do not seek any permission to dig in their own private lands, and in this case, the pond was over 15 feet deep and had water for 10 feet deep, so there was no barricade or precautions. As the child was from the same village, he knew about the pond and was playing near it during the lunch break with his six-year-old brother and other students. It was the brother who informed the headmaster."
Police added, "The tarpaulin sheet below offers no grip, and people who fall lack any grip to save themselves. In this case, both the headmaster and the students do not know how to swim, so they drowned. Even experienced swimmers find it gruelling to come out of such ponds layered with tarpaulin."
Following this, CM MK Stalin was notified about the incident, he expressed his condolences and announced a solatium of Rs 3 lakh each from the Chief Minister General Relief Fund, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
Meanwhile, no action has been taken against the farmer for the digging out a pond without precautions.
