RESCUE RANGERS ON THE SUTLEJ

by Graham Milton

View from Rekong Peo

We traveled to Rampur on the banks of the mighty Sutlej River which flows from Mt Kailas in Tibet. Up stream of Rampur has only been paddled by some of the worlds best expedition kayakers in winter when levels are lower. Being September and 3 months after an enormous flood came down the valley when a lake burst in Tibet we thought we would perhaps give the lower river a pop form below Rampur instead. However, our plans were to be delayed...

Rampur

We awoke in the morning to a phone call from a local important person who had seen our kayaks in reception the night before and must have mistaken us for a team of highly trained search and rescue team of expert kayakers. He explained his best English that a bridge had collapsed up stream and they requested our assistance in looking for some of the 34 army men that were on the bridge at the time. A Jeep was summoned and the UK Kayak Rapid Response Unit (UKKRRU) was formed there and then and jumped in to life after a leisurely breakfast and a cup of tea. Tom Saffell, Ben Bedingham, Andy Milton and Myself. Before long we were being whisked up the stunning Sutlej valley to Danger Zone blaring out the Ipod.

Collapsed bridge!

The scour marks from the flood in June were quite prominent. In true Indian fashion none of us knew where we were going or what we were expected to do but we were just happy for a free Jeep ride up the incredible valley. We arrived at the India's biggest hydro project which was very impressive. We thought that we would just be waiting for dead bodies to appear here and we would go and fish then out. However the Indian administration had higher plans for us. We were whisked another 2 hours up the valley, heads hanging out the windows like dogs trying to catch a glimpse of the mighty river below. We climbed up above the river to Rekong Peo to meet the Deputy Commissioner of the region.....the big cheese with free biscuits. We discussed the situation at hand over fine whiskey and Cuban cigars (just biscuits). The bridge had collapsed the day before and was already in the papers on his desk. One body was washed up on rocks and the army couldnt really do anything about it apart from watch. It was decided they would put us up in a government guest house to relax for the evening and we would burst into life in the morning...a true Indian sense of emergency.

View from Rekong Peo (Compare to Mark Rainsley's photo, Easter 2006)

Breakfast took us by surprise when we were met by the journalist. It was very hard to take her seriously and I think we failed. Anyway it was action stations for the UK Kayak Rapid Response Unit, right after Andy had a shave when he knew the media were about.

We went down to where the body was sited and it was still there. Just about visible from the road if it was pointed out. We had a recce of the river and thought we stood a good chance of helping. As the crowds mounted on the banks we got all our rescue gear together. Running the rapid before only seemed fair for the crowds sake. We all crossed the river to meet the army still scratching their heads on the other side. The plan was simple. Send Andy and Tom to the rock behind the body and leave me and Ben to boss the army about. The body was stiff as a board and they did a very god job attaching a harness to it. Not an easy job considering it was the first dead body any of us had seen. After three attempts (no rush with dead bodies) I got a throw line across to them which they attached to the harness and then let the army do a very good job on pulling on the rope. I then helped pull the body out. I could not help but look at a big hole in his forehead which was very unpleasant. Anyway, a job done and we were pleased that we had helped.

We have our photo in The Hindu Times and mentions in 2 or 3 other papers including a front page one which may have gone national. The BBC had something on the web site about the initial bridge collapse up, but I don't think they picked up on us.

(click above image for full size version)

Another newspaper report

The next day was spent chilling out and waiting for the army to spot any more bodies, which was pretty unlikely as whole buses have been know to disappear in the Sutlej along with all passengers.

Tom and Ben had to head down south together to Delhi the next morning leaving me and Andy to decide if we wanted to paddle from Rampur down, which we did!! We were seen off from Rampur by huge crowds on the bridge and roof tops, which we duly entertained with a bit of surfing.

The first day was an excellent day, a mixture of boat and bank scouting with everything going comfortably. We arrived for our first night at Luri to people shouting from the banks, but with a bit more meaning than the usual whistles we had become accustomed to. We soon saw a car in the river which we paddled across to, it quickly came apparent that it was too critical when we could smell a body in the car. The car was about 3 metres from the bank and had fallen from the road about 30 feet up. We couldn't really refuse the local pleas for help in trying to get yet another dead body out of the river. Only this time it had been there for 10 days. I decided it was my turn to do the dirty work this time so with the help of Andy from the bank I traversed across a cable which had been attached to the car. Perched on the car the body smelt repulsive. He was floating up side down in the driver's seat. I attached a rope to the door so people on the bank could wrench it open. Then it was a case of tying a strap around this bloated stinking body, the worst bit being putting my hand under water around his body to get the strap. Once attached to a rope Andy walked downstream while I pulled the body out by his collar and belt. When on the bank I made the mistake of looking at his face again, worse condition than the other guy.

Graham retrieves the body at Luri.

Quite an entry to the town you were planning on staying in. The locals put us up in a nice guest house overlooking the river. The deceased man's brother was actually on the bank watching it all and was remarkably composed and thanked us.

Another great days kayaking followed with a very exciting/ disorientating (5+?) rapid. We found a great riverside lodge with hot springs to stay that night. The next day the river was very tropical and beautiful but a bit flat for the adrenaline buds. Until of course, to our surprise, the whole thing disappeared. Dam it ..Well it was actually two very big pipes and we got out in time. A bit of an abrupt end to quite an eventful trip! We then got escorted off the huge industrial site at the end to find the river again and it was mirror like so we jumped on a bus to Shimla.

The end of the Sutlej...

It's not just dead bodies we have been pulling out of rivers, Andy and Tom saved a little boy who had got swept down rapids on the Beas trib we would not dare kayak.

There was another bridge collapse on the Chandra and it was down for days with queues of thousands of trucks and people either side. We of course just kayaked across smugly to the envy of 100's watching and got on with our journey....

Broken bridge on the Chandra.

Four weeks in India rounded off an incredible Gap year including 6 months kayaking in Nepal, New Zealand and Chile and I would like to thank every one I paddled with.

Graham Milton

Local accommodation.