CANACONA: In a daring feat, a local resident saved a youth from drowning, while he was struggling to stay afloat in a waterfall in the deep forests off Sadolxem village in Canacona recently.
The youth who was saved is from Margao and is aged 26 years old. He had gone with his friend, aged 21 years old, on an adventure trip to Canacona where they thought of exploring the forests on their way to Gogel waterfall.
After parking their two-wheeler at Karegotton, they set on foot to Gogel waterfall which was located kms away.
The waterfall, which is relatively unknown to many, has become a hotspot for young boys and girls who look for privacy.
Elsewhere, the boy’s eventual rescuer, Dinesh Sadolxemkar had just reached home after a visit to the physician, incidentally, after having taken an injection for pain in his knee. Little did he know what was in store for him, when he left his house, after informing his wife that he was going to explore the forest near the Gogel waterfall in search of wild mushrooms.
Despite his wife’s objection not to venture into the wild as it was past 5 pm and it gets quite dark in the jungle in the evening, he went anyway. Due to the presence of huge trees, there is little light on the forest ground.
As Dinesh went towards the usual places where wild mushrooms grow, he didn’t find any until he reached a termite mound that was located very close to the Gogel waterfall.
“Amidst the sound of the roar of the thousands of liters of falling water and the sounds of the forests insects, I had just squatted to pluck the mushrooms, at that moment I could hear shouts of distress from a girl screaming for help,” said Dinesh.
Without wasting any time, he rushed towards the waterfall. “ From a distance, I saw a boy in the middle of the waterfall struggling to remain afloat and the girl shouting and offering him an umbrella to grab and pull himself to safety”, exclaimed Dinesh.
At that point, Dinesh said it didn’t strike him that he has a family who is solely dependent on him, including his three school-going children. Nor did he think about what would happen to them if something happened to him.
“I just jumped into the churning water of the waterfall and grabbed the boy by his neck and brought him to the shore and consoled both of them who were terrified after the shocking turn of events”, he said.
It was a battle against all odds as Dinesh managed to save the youth from almost certain death.
Dinesh later took them to his rented house in Muthal and after offering them hot tea to help them calm their nerves, he dropped them to the place where they had parked their bike at Karegotton.
Dinesh said that the mother of the boy called him later that day to express her gratitude for saving his son from almost certain death.
Praising the bravery exhibited by Dinesh, Xavier Barretto a resident of Sadolxem said that this is not the first time Dinesh has come to the rescue of someone in danger and that he was instrumental in reaching to help people in distress in the past too.
“He doesn’t have a permanent job, makes do in a rented house, it is only right that the government has to acknowledge his bravery and aid him and his family by offering financial assistance or a permanent job”, opined Barretto.
