Tamil Nadu forest officials brave raging waterfall to rescue trapped woman and infant - WATCH

The visuals of the hair raising operation by Tamil Nadu forest officials has been shared on social media and has quickly gone viral with people hailing the officers as heroes. Watch here

New Delhi: Some brave Tamil Nadu forest officials conducted a daring rescue operation of a mother and baby as the two got stuck near a waterfall while a flashflood raged on around them. The visuals of the hair-raising operation has been shared on social media and has quickly gone viral with people hailing the officers as heroes.

The incident took place at the Kallavarayan hills, near Salem district’s Attur on Sunday. In the two-minute video, a woman and her baby are seen sitting on the edge of a rock as water gushes by at Anaivari Muttal falls in Salem after heavy rains battered the area. The place had reopened for public two months ago after COVID-19 rules were eased.

WATCH:

A mom & child, caught in a flood were rescued by #ForestDept staff & brave villagers near Tamil Nadu's Anaivari waterfalls, an ecotourism spot.

Two of the rescuers while returning, slipped & fell inside the water but swam across to safety. Kudos to entire team #GreenWarriors pic.twitter.com/6TDqC5qV1y — Praveen Angusamy, IFS (@PraveenIFShere) October 26, 2021

A couple of forest officials and a few of the locals decided to mount a rescue operation to get the mother-child duo to safety. The officials climbed the precarious rocks and reached them and then used a rope to lift the child first and then the woman. 

After the mother and child were pulled to safety, two individuals who were helping the forest officials slipped into the water. Praveen Angusamy, an officer of the Indian Forest Services (IFS) - who shared the video mentioned in his caption that the "volunteers swam across to safety". 

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin directed senior officials and district collectors to take appropriate precautionary measures to prevent flooding and minimise losses due to the onset of North East Monsoon. The weather department said that nine districts including Kanyakumari, Nilgiris and Erode, have received heavy rains in October.