KARWAR: An ailing elderly woman from Nagari village in Joida taluk, Uttara Kannada district, which was cut off from the main road due to an uprooted tree, was taken to hospital in a hammock for 2 km.
Lakshmi Desai (85) has been suffering with fever for the last one week. But due to the fallen tree, her family was unable to shift her to a hospital. They waited for gram panchayat officials to clear the road, but even after a week, the tree wasn’t cleared.
Finally, on Saturday, her son and villagers decided to take her in a hammock till the main road, and then shift her to the government hospital in a four-wheeler.
Sunil Desai, the grandson of the patient, said his father and other villagers had approached Joida GP and forest officials, requesting them to clear the road. “Nothing has been done. So we took my grandmother in a hammock for more than 2 km via the mud road,” he said.
“We have been demanding an all-weather road for the last 20 years. During monsoons, four-wheelers cannot ply on the mud road. We are just 4 km away from the taluk headquarters, but the road is so bad,” he said.
When contacted, a panchayat official said they had brought the matter to the notice of forest officials a few days ago. But the latter have not addressed the problem.
Forest officials said more than 40 trees had fallen on many main roads in the past one week. “It takes 5-6 hours to clear one tree. So there was a delay in clearing the tree near Nagari village,” they said.