Early that day, a landslide wreaked havoc on Uttara Kannada district’s Shirur village, which is located on one side of the river. The landslide swept away everything in its path, including a tea shop, trucks and people on National Highway (NH) 66. A “tsunami wave” afterwards in Uluvare village, located on the other side of the river, destroyed several houses and led to a woman’s death.

Hailing from Udupi, Eshwar was roped in by the Uttara Kannada district administration 10 days later to retrieve the bodies of Arjun, a truck driver from Kerala, and Shirur-based Lokesh and Jaganath Naik. All three are believed to be dead.

Hailing from Udupi, Eshwar was roped in by the Uttara Kannada district administration 10 days later to retrieve the bodies of Arjun, a truck driver from Kerala, and Shirur-based Lokesh and Jaganath Naik. (Photo credit: Special arrangement)

A self-taught underwater search and recovery expert, Eshwar has over the past 20 years been rescuing people from drowning and has retrieved nearly 1,000 remains from water bodies across the state in Chikmagalur, Bengaluru, Kolar, Belagavi and Dandeli, among other places.

But for the first time in two decades, the aggressive current of the Gangavali river overpowered Eshwar’s heroic efforts inside the swollen river. This, despite the fact that he was the first to dive inside the river since the operations started. Even the Navy’s deep divers, and personnel from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) found it difficult to jump into the choppy waters. For now, the district administration has decided to suspend the nearly fortnight-long rescue efforts in view of the turbid current and incessant rainfall.

Speaking from Ankola, a day after the search operations were called off, Eshwar told The Indian Express, “The river was flowing at over 20 knots, which is equivalent to a car zipping at 100 km per hour. I managed to descend about 20 feet underwater, but eventually found myself in the danger zone (because of zero visibility caused by tonnes of silt).”

Before the operations were suspended, Eshwar was attempting to locate truck driver Arjun. A drone team headed by Major General M Indrabalan (retired) had mapped the approximate location of his truck in the downstream area of the river. Of the four points marked by the drone team, Eshwar said the third was located in the downstream part of the river, about 500 metres from NH-66 and that Arjun’s truck was suspected to be about 25-30 feet underneath the river.

“Since the current was extremely aggressive, we had to use a motorboat to travel 500 metres to the geotagged spot.

It looked like an island, with tonnes of silt and boulders. I used five anchors spread across 50 metres and descended into the river. There was zero visibility because of silt and other debris. So I touched the things around me to identify what was underneath the river. I was able to identify entangled wires, electrical towers, broken trees, boulders and other sharp objects, but no truck,” said Eshwar.

He dove into the river with two oxygen cylinders weighing about 10-15 kg. “The oxygen levels dropped to almost single digits during my underwater investigation, so I had to use the emergency buoyancy ascent. I inflated the buoyancy compensator device, which helped me rise to the surface.”

He added, “The current was so strong that a diver unfamiliar with the terrain would not have made it back alive.

This is why even drivers from the Navy refrained from taking risks. Until Saturday (July 27), rescue operations focused on clearing the silt and doing a recce on boat to identify the bodies. The current made it impossible for them to dive. My meeting with the relatives of the three victims made me go inside the water. They were in emotional distress, having had sleepless nights since July 16.”

Eshwar is not alone in his missions. He is assisted by a team of eight volunteers, all from Malpe. His crew is responsible for logistics, which includes assisting him during the missions, driving him to the rescue spot, pulling him up with the help of ropes from underwater and documenting these missions on video.

Despite all the help and his two-decade experience, Eshwar admitted that this mission was one of the “toughest” for him so far.

Thanks to his determination to help others, Eshwar is now training more people to help those in distress. (Photo credit: Special arrangement)

But his journey was easier said than done. Born in a middle-class household, Eshwar had to learn swimming on his own. He recalls swimming “nearly 5 km at Malpe beach” back then.

On what prompted his body recovery journey, he says, “Growing up, I realised that bodies of fisherfolk and their crew who died in accidents on the high seas were simply left there. Even the police would refuse to recover their bodies. I started recovering such remains so that their families could do their final rites.”

Once again, financial constraints meant he had to learn everything — from rescuing people to recovering remains from water bodies — on his own. Besides his pro-bono rescue missions, Eshwar also runs a free-of-cost ambulance service today.

Thanks to his determination to help others, Eshwar is now training more people to help those in distress. “I have been training the Coastal Security Police (CSP) in marine rescue operations for about four years now. Over the past 20 years, I have taught scuba diving to nearly 120 police officers in Malpe,” he says.

When he is not helping people, he runs a water tanker business that supplies water to motor boats in Malpe. A father to three children who suffer from paralysis, Eshwar lost his eldest, a 23-year-old son, in January 2022 to the same disease. He currently resides in Malpe with his wife and their two children, aged 21 and 6 years.

“My wife has been my constant supporter in all these dangerous missions. Before her, it was my mother,” said Eshwar, who is currently on standby for the second leg of the Shirur rescue mission that is expected to start after the rainfall recedes.