In a demonstration of rare courage, a man in a Chhattisgarh district battled against water current in a dam by holding on to a tree for 16 hours before being rescued by an Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper on Monday morning.

Jitendra Kashyap (41), resident of Gidhoridham under Ratanpur police station in Bilashpur district, jumped off the bridge in Khutaghat dam, located close to his place, on Sunday evening and was swept away by the current of water.



He however managed to get hold of a tree trunk and a boulder to prevent him from being washed away by the flooded dam water.

The passersby alerted the local police on the incident.

A rescue operation was launched by the local police to pull him out from the water.

However, the rescue operation was suspended due to heavy rains and low visibility in the night, a senior police officer posted in the Bilashpur district said.

“We have made several efforts to rescue the man. But, the rising level of water coupled with bad weather had hindered the rescue operation”, Bilashpur range inspector general of police Dipansu Karba said.



The man had clutched on to the tree trunk while positioning himself firmly on a rock the whole night of Sunday to save him from being swept away by the gushing water in the dam.

“The man was being watched all night and motivated to keep his spirit high”, police said.

Later, local police sought the help of Indian Air Force (IAF) to rescue him.

The IAF launched a rescue operation by deploying a MI17 chopper and fished the man out of water after a 30-minute-long operation.

“Breathtaking! What seems impossible to us # IndianAirForce makes it look so simple…. The @IAF MCC’s# SkyWarrior first himself attempted to go down & bring the man up, risking his own life. But, due to fast wind it was not possible, later the guy was rescued with other technique”, Mr Karba narrated the rescue operation in his twitter post.



The man was subsequently airlifted. He was later admitted in a private hospital in Raipur. His condition was stated to be stable.