Washed away in Bengaluru: A bride’s parents, a priest, mother & daughter

Six deaths in two days of rainfall serve reminder of disrupted drainage system because of construction.

Amid heavy rain on the evening of October 13, Vasudeva Bhat, 40, a priest at a temple in the Kurubarahalli region of northwestern Bengaluru, went to his home next to the temple to warn his wife not to let their two young children go out since their low-lying locality was bound to witness flooding.

On his way back to the temple, Bhat apparently tried to unclog a drain that flowed near the house and the temple. The stone slab he was standing on gave way, sending him tumbling into the drain. His body was found the next day, nearly 1 km from the spot where he had fallen in.

Five people died in the heavy rainfall in northwestern Bengaluru that night, and a sixth person in east Bengaluru on October 14 following heavy rain in that region. All the deaths occurred in lower middle-class localities and next to major stormwater drains that were overflowing from rainfall that lasted three to four hours. The victims in the northwestern part on October 13, in fact, belonged to families who lived a few streets away from one another.

Bhat, priest of the Venkataramana temple for over 10 years, had been provided the house by the temple authorities and lived there with his mother, wife and two children. Neighbours recalled that he would go to the temple everyday at 7:30 am and return in the afternoon, then go again around 5:30 pm and return around 9. The day he was washed away, he had gone at 5:30 pm as usual and come back around 7 to warn his family.

“It seems that when it started raining heavily, a portion of the temple wall collapsed and the priest came home to warn his family about the heavy rain,” said Rupali K, a neighbour. Another neighbour said, “Water from the drain was overflowing onto the streets and the stone slabs over the drain were barely visible. The loose slab gave way when the priest was standing on it.”

*** 

A few streets away, located beside a major stormwater drain, is the home of Shivarudrappa, 60, a daily wage earner whose wife and daughter were swept away as they tried to escape the water overflowing from the drain into their house.

The daughter, Pushpa, 22, who worked in a factory was only home that evening because her mother, Ningamma, 45, was unwell, say locals. Shivarudrappa could not prevent them being swept into the main drain because he was occupied trying to get his young grandchildren to safer ground.

“They had barely stepped out when they were washed away. There was nothing we could do,” says Shivarudrappa. He was living in the small house with his wife, three daughters and two grandchildren.

“There was nothing we could do,” echoed Raghunath, a neighbour. “The water was getting too high in our homes and we had no option but to get out. The two women drowned when they tried to leave their home by walking through the flowing water.”

Pushpa’s body was found nearly 10 km away. Disaster relief forces and the fire services are yet to locate the body of her mother.

One lane away, and close to the main stormwater drain, is the home of the couple Venkatappa, 48, and Kamalamma, 45, who were killed when a wall collapsed while the family was evacuating the house. The couple’s daughter Vani Venkatappa, 25, a schoolteacher whose wedding was being planned in November, and their son were home then.