A tribal man was forced to carry the body of his deceased wife from the hospital to his home on a two-wheeler, and then by tying it to a log, owing to a lack of transport facilities and road connectivity in a tribal region of Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram district on Wednesday, January 17. Mandala Gangulu was forced to carry the body of his wife Ganamma after an auto-driver refused to transport the body beyond Srungavarapukota mandal to the family’s village of Chittempadu, about 100 kilometres away.

Gangamma and her son fell ill a few days ago. As Gangulu could not take them to the nearest hospital efficiently owing to poor road conditions, he carried them on a makeshift stretcher for five kilometres. The child died on January 7 while he was being shifted to Visakhapatnam, located nearly 115 km away from Srungaarapukota.

Gangamma was taken to a Community Health Centre (CHC) in  Srungavarapukota on January 5 but died a few days later. Gangulu then had to take his wife’s dead body from the hospital with the help of his friend on a two-wheeler, and from Boddavara railway station, carried the body home by tying it to a log. 

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary N Chandrababu Naidu slammed the YSRCP government for failing to arrange an ambulance, and demanded that a road to Chittempadu be built immediately. He also highlighted the need for introducing feeder ambulances to prevent such incidents in the future.