Anantha Kumar points to the area where the boys drowned; Inset (Noble Joseph and Jithu Joseph)Kottayam: Anantha Kumar thought he was in a nightmare. He spotted two hands desperately stretched out of the treacherous whirlwind. He wanted to scream for help. He could not.
Anantha Kumar, 15, was the first one to notice two teenagers drowning in the River Meenachil on Monday. The boy with speech and hearing impairments was rowing along the Chirappattu Kadavu near Chemmanampadi when he noticed two hands bobbing in the water. He immediately grasped the gravity of the situation for he knew about the whirlwind formed by a bend in the river.
He rowed up to the whirlwind to help the drowning people but he could not do it alone. Neither could he ask for help. His speech is not legible.
He rowed fast towards his mother who was washing clothes a little downstream. The woman alerted the people in the area who dived into the river to save the boys. They had little success. Later, the firemen fished out the two bodies.
Cousins drown in Meenachil
The cousins from the nearby Gandhi Nagar and Arpookkara areas were enjoying a dip in the water in the afternoon when they were suddenly drawn into the whirlwind. Noble Joseph and Jithu Joseph were waiting to join the higher secondary course.
They are not the first children to drown in this area. Five students, including three medical students, have drowned in this stretch in 1993 and 2007. Yet the authorities have not put up a signboard to warn the swimmers.
Any accident is hard to notice in this area as both banks of the river are covered in thick green cover.
