The two bravehearts have been identified as Kishan Majhi and Sanjay Pujari of Dangaguda village in Jeypore area.
As per reports, the man, Laxman Sahoo was sitting on the canal bridge at Gandhi Chhak today morning after morning walk when he accidentally fell off the bridge into Dangaguda canal.
Kishan and Sanjay rushed to the spot and jumped into the river to help Sahu. Despite all odds, the duo successfully managed to rescue him from drowning after much struggle.
“Some girls of our locality saw the person drowning and informed us. We immediately rushed to the river and initially thought he was dead but when we witnessed some movement, we dived into the river and rescued him,” said a smiling Sanjay.
Meanwhile, after news of the incident spread like wildfire, wishes continued to pour for the brave boys from various quarters. Jeypore Town Police too felicitated Kishan and Sanjay for their brave act.
"The boys risked their lives to save the man who accidentally fell into the river. I would like to thank the boys for their courageous act,” said Jeypore Town Police Station Inspector-in-charge, Baleswar Gidhi.
Reportedly, the villagers have also requested the Koraput district administration to recommend Kishan and Sanjay’s name for the national bravery award.
Three girls from the State- Purnima Giri and Sabita Giri of Nipania village in Kendrapara district and Shrimati Badra of Angul district received National Bravery Awards-2019 from President Ram Nath Kovind on Republic Day a few weeks ago.
The Giri-sisters had put their lives at risk and rescued 12 people after a boat capsized in Mahanadi river mouth near Nipania in Kendrapara on January 1, 2019. Likewise, Shrimati had saved her friend from a train accident.
As per reports, seven students of Koraput government college had gone to the reservoir to celebrate birthday of one of their friends when the mishap occurred. All the victims were Plus-II second year students of Computer Science and the mishap occurred when they were taking bath in the backwater of the reservoir.
Sources said the students went to the reservoir to celebrate a birthday as examinations are going on in almost all the departments of the college. The backwater of the Kolab reservoir is just 500 mtrs away from the college, so it was nothing new for the students to go there. But as luck would have it, three of them drowned.
“I had repeatedly barred him from not going to any hotel. On Friday, saying me that he will return after college hours, he went with his friends to party and didn’t return,” said one of the relatives of the deceased.
Four students who survived the mishap said that despite their best efforts, they couldn’t save their friends as none of them knew how to swim. They called the Fire Services who later recovered the bodies from the reservoir.