Perambalur: Three women from Perambalur will be conferred with 'Kalpana Chawla Award' for rescuing two youths from drowning in the Kottari Dam. The trio has been selected for showing the quick presence of mind and courage to save two youths from drowning.
The three brave women – Senthamizh Selvi (38), Muthammal (34) and Anandavalli (34) - will jointly receive the annual award from the Chief Minister Edappadi Karuppa Palaniswami on the occasion of Independence Day.
Villagers of Adanurai expressed their joy after learning that three women from their village will be felicitated for their bravery. People lauded the efforts of these women who without giving it a second thought showed exemplary courage to save the two youths from drowning. The trio has already left for Chennai to collect their awards.
Earlier on August 6, a group of 12 youngsters from Siruvachchur village went to play cricket near Kottarrai village. The youths went to take bathe in the rivers after playing. Due to the heavy rainfall over the past few weeks, the depth of the water in the dam rose to 20 feet.
The three women had just finished washing and were busy washing their clothes when the group arrived. Pavithran, Rajnit, Karthick and Senthilvelan went to bathe in the river.
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On seeing the boys going into the river, the women advised them not to do so as it was deep and muddy.
Narrating the incident, Senthamiz Selvi said, "The boys came for swimming. We warned them that the water would be deep but they did not pay attention to us. But within an hour, somehow the four teen lost their balance and slipped."
"As we were about to leave, we heard cries. Upon turning back, we saw four of them were waving hands. All of them were drowning. We removed our sarees without thinking anything and threw them into water. We hurled the sarees towards them. We somehow managed to save two boys but the other two drowned while we were attempting to save them," Selvi said.
"We tried our best but unfortunately we could not save them," Anandavalli said with a heavy voice. The bodies of the two who drowned, Pavithran (17) and Ranjith (24), a trainee doctor, were fished out later by the Fire Service personnel.
"We were pained at the sight of seeing two people dying in front of our eyes. We are still not able to accept that we could not save them despite our best efforts. We later learnt that one of the deceased is a trainee doctor. We will be honoured but we are still left with a void. The thought still haunts us and we are trying to overcome with the traumatic experience," the trio said with a tinge of sorrow.
